Rule 98.06.Answer--Motions.

Rule 98.06 closes out the quo warranto rules by telling the respondent what an answer must do. It has to be directed to the petition in quo warranto, meeting the relator's stated facts and requested relief head-on, just as Rule 97.07 requires for prohibition.

The rule also gives the respondent the same flexibility found in prohibition practice: the answer may include one or more motions, or those motions may be filed alongside the answer as separate papers. A respondent challenging an official's authority to hold an office, or a corporation's right to a franchise, may need to raise procedural objections at the same time as a substantive defense, and this rule lets both happen together.

Like Rule 97.07, Rule 98.06 changed the earlier practice of pleading to the preliminary order in quo warranto instead of to the petition itself. Directing the answer to the petition keeps the focus on the relator's claims, the document that framed the dispute in the first place.