6 Pa. Commw. 622 | Pa. Commw. Ct. | 1972
Opinion by
This is an appeal from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County which dismissed a complaint in equity by certain taxpayers who sought to enjoin the Mt. Lebanon School District and the Mt. Lebanon High School Authority from constructing a 115,000,000 addition to the township high school.
On November 30, 1972, the action was brought in behalf of “all ta,x payers [sic] and residents similarly .situated” and alleged, inter alia, that the District and the Authority had acted arbitrarily, capriciously, contrary to the taxpayers’ interests and in bad faith in planning and undertaking the project.
As evidenced by their pleading strategy and as argued before this Court on appeal, taxpayers take the position that the dismissal of preliminary objections to a complaint, which objections include issues of res judicata and laches, precludes the raising of such defenses in a later pleading.
Pa. R. C. P. No. 1030 requires affirmative defenses, including res judicata and laches, to be raised in a responsive pleading under the heading of New Matter.
“ ‘New matter’ pleading is designed to compel a plaintiff to answer the defendant’s affirmative defenses during the pleading stage to avoid an unnecessary trial. If the plaintiff answers inadequately, a motion for judgment on the pleadings may be filed.” Goodrich-Am-ram, Standard Pennsylvania Practice (1972 Supple
Notwithstanding these errors, no purpose would be served in remanding this case to the lower court for further proceedings. The pleadings contain sufficient undisputed facts upon which the lower court could have properly determined — and to which it did make passing reference — that as a matter of law the prior action is res judicata of the present one.
Although perhaps dispositive of the case, we need not pass upon the issue of laches.