JERSEY Law and Practice Contributed by: Marcus Pallot, Eleanor Davies and Christopher Tan, Carey Olsen
in respect of the claim or issue in question, and that there is no serious conflict between the par- ties as to matters of fact and/or law. An application for summary judgment must be made by way of an interlocutory summons supported by an affidavit verifying the facts to which the application relates and stating that, in the applicant’s belief, the other party has no real prospect of succeeding on or defending the claim or issue (as the case may be). The sum- mons and a copy of the affidavit must be served on the other party at least 14 clear days before the day on which the summary judgment hearing is to take place. An application for summary judgment can be made at any stage in the proceedings, except that a plaintiff may not apply for summary judg- ment until the defendant has notified the court of its intention to defend the claim and has placed the matter on the court’s pending list. A party may ask for (any or all of) the pleadings of another party to be struck out. Such an appli- cation may be made instead of or in addition to an application for summary judgment. The Court may, at any stage of the proceedings, order to be struck out or amended any claim or plead- ing, or anything in any claim or pleading, on the ground that: it discloses no reasonable cause of action or defence, as the case may be; • it is scandalous, frivolous or vexatious; • it may prejudice, embarrass or delay the fair trial of the action; or • it is otherwise an abuse of the process of the court.
In relation to the first ground, the court will not strike out pleadings that are merely poorly drafted. The arguments made must be plainly unsustainable. Typically, the court will be slow to order strike out as doing so can have drastic consequences for the party whose pleadings are struck out, particularly if struck out in their entirety. As a point of general observation, it is preferable to apply for strike out sooner rather than later. 4.3 Dispositive Motions Please see 4.2 Early Judgment Applications . 4.4 Requirements for Interested Parties to Join a Lawsuit A defendant may request that the court convene as a third party a person (other than either the plaintiff or the defendant) who is implicated in the subject matter of the action but is not yet before the court. If the third party is convened, the position between the defendant and third party is akin to plaintiff and defendant, respec- tively. The court may make an order convening a third party if the defendant, in their answer to the plaintiff’s action: • claims any contribution or indemnity against that third party; • claims against that third party any relief or remedy relating to or connected with the original subject matter of the action and sub- stantially the same as some relief or remedy claimed by the plaintiff; or • requires that any question or issue relating to or connected with the original subject matter of the action should be determined not only as between the plaintiff and the defendant, but also as between either or both of them and the third party.
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