Order 15 FCT (Civil Procedure) Rules 2025

Order 15 of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2025 is about Pleadings. It contains the following rules:

1. (1) A statement of claim shall include the relief or remedy to
   which a claimant claims to be entitled.

(2) A defendant shall file his statement of defence, set-off or
counterclaim, if any not later than 21 days after service on him of the originating process and accompanying
documents. A counterclaim shall have the same effect as a
cross action, so as to allow the Court deliver a final
judgment in the same proceedings. A set-off must be
specifically pleaded.

(3) A claimant shall within 14 days of service of the
statement of defence and counterclaim if any file his reply
and defence if any to such defence or counterclaim.
Where a defendant sets up a counterclaim, if a claimant or
any other person named as a party to such counter claim
contends that the claim raised ought not to be disposed of
by way of counterclaim, but in a separate proceedings, the
Court may at any time make such order as it deems fit.

2. (1) Every pleading shall contain, a statement in a summary
   form of the material facts on which the party pleading
   relies for his claim or defence, as the case may be, but not
   the evidence by which they are to be proved and shall, be
   divided into paragraphs numbered consecutively.

(2) Dates, sums and numbers shall be expressed in figures
but may also be expressed in words.

(3) Pleadings shall be signed by a legal practitioner or by
the party if he sues or defends in person.

3. (1) In all cases in which the party pleading relies on any
   misrepresentation, fraud, breach of trust, wilful default, or
   undue influence and in all other cases, in which particulars
   may be necessary, particulars (with dates and items if
   necessary) shall be stated in the pleadings.
   (2) In an action for libel or slander if the claimant alleges
   that the words or matter complained of were used in a
   defamatory sense other than their ordinary meaning, he
   shall give particulars of the facts and matters on which he
   relies in support of his allegation.

4. An application for a further and better statement of the
   nature of the claim or defence, or further and better
   particulars of any matter stated in any pleading requiring particulars shall be made to the Court at any time before the close of pleadings. The Court may grant such application upon such terms as it deems fit.

5. (1) Every allegation of fact in any pleadings if not
   specifically denied in the pleadings of the opposing party
   shall be taken as admitted except as against a person under
   legal disability.
   (2) A general denial in any pleadings shall not operate as
   denial of any specific fact in the pleadings of the opposing
   party.
6. Each party shall specify in his pleadings any condition
   precedent, the performance or occurrence of which is
   intended to be contested.

7. (1) All grounds of defence or reply which makes an action
   unmaintainable or if not raised will take the opposing
   party by surprise or will raise issues of facts not arising out
   of the preceding pleadings shall be specifically pleaded.
   (2) Where a party raises any ground which makes a
   transaction void or voidable or such matters as fraud,
   limitation law, release, payment, performance, facts
   showing insufficiency in contract or illegality either by any
   enactment or by common law, he shall specifically plead it.
8. No pleading shall raise any new ground of claim or contain
   any allegation of fact inconsistent with the previous
   pleadings of the party.

9. A party may by his pleadings join issues upon the
pleadings of the opposing party and such joinder of issues
shall operate as a denial of every material allegation of fact
in the pleading upon which issue is joined except any fact
which the party may be willing to admit.

10. Wherever the contents of any document are material it
    shall be sufficient in any pleading to state its effect as briefly as possible, without setting out the whole or any part, unless the precise words of the document or any part are material.

11. Wherever it is material to allege notice to any person of any
    fact, matter or thing, it shall be sufficient to allege such
    notice as a fact, unless the form or the precise terms of such
    notice or the circumstances from which such notice is to be
    inferred are material.
12. Wherever any contract or any relation between any
    persons is to be implied from a series of letters or
    conversations, or otherwise from a number of
    circumstances, it shall be sufficient to allege such contract
    or relation as a fact, and to refer generally to such letters,
    conversations or circumstances without setting them out in
    detail. If in such case the person so pleading desires to rely
    in the alternative upon more contracts or relations than one
    as to be implied from such circumstances, it may be stated
    in the alternative.

13. A party may not allege in any pleadings any matter or fact
    the law presumes in his favour or as to which the burden of
    proof lies upon the other side, unless it has been specifically
    denied.
14. In every case in which the cause of action is a stated or
    settled account it shall be alleged with particulars but in
    every case in which a statement of account is relied on by
    way of evidence or admission of any other cause of action
    which is pleaded, it shall not be alleged in the pleadings.
15. No technical objection shall be raised to any pleadings on
    the ground of any alleged want of form.

16. (1) Wherever it is material to allege malice, fraudulent
    intention, knowledge or other condition of the mind of any
    person, it shall be sufficient to allege the condition of mind as a fact without setting out the circumstances from which it is to be inferred.

(2) Where in an action for libel or slander the defendant
pleads that any of the words or matters complained of are
fair comment on a matter of public interest or were
published upon a privileged occasion, the claimant shall, if
he intends to allege that the defendant was actuated by
express malice, deliver a reply giving particulars of the
facts and matters from which such malice is to be inferred.

(3) Where in an action for libel or slander the defendant
alleges that the words complained of consist of statement
of fact, they are true in substance and in fact, and where
they consist of expressions of opinion, they are fair
comment on a matter of public interest, or pleads to the like
effect, he shall give particulars stating which of the facts
and matters he relies on in support of the allegation that the
words are true.

17. (1) The Court may at any stage of the proceedings order to
    be struck out or amended any pleading or the endorsement
    of any writ in the action or anything in any pleading or in
    the endorsement, on the ground that:
    (a) It discloses no reasonable cause of action or
    defence as the case may be; or
    (b) It is scandalous, frivolous, or vexatious; or
    (c) It may prejudice, embarrass or delay the fair trial
    of the action; or
    (d) It is an abuse of the process of Court;
    (e) The Court may order the action to be stayed or
    dismissed or judgement to be entered
    accordingly as the case may be.

(2) No evidence shall be admissible on application under paragraph (1) (a).
(3) This rule shall, so far as applicable, apply to an originating summons and a petition as if the summons or petition, as the case may be, were a pleading.
(4) No proceedings shall be open to objection on the ground that only a declaratory judgement or order is sought and the Court may make binding declaration of right whether any consequential relief is claimed or not.

18. (1) Where a pleading subsequent to reply is not ordered,
    then, at the expiration of 7 days from the service of the
    defence or reply (if a reply has been filed) pleadings shall be
    deemed closed.
    (2) Where a pleading subsequent to reply is ordered, and
    the party who has been ordered or given leave to file fails to
    do so within the period limited for that purpose, then, at
    the expiration of the period so limited the pleadings shall
    be deemed closed.
    (3) This rule shall not apply to a defence to counterclaim
    and unless the claimant files a defence to counterclaim, the
    statements of fact contained in such counterclaim shall at
    the expiration of 14 days from the service or of such time (if
    any) as may by order be allowed for filing of a defence be
    deemed to be admitted, but the Court may at any
    subsequent time give leave to the claimant to file a defence
    to counterclaim.

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