Rule Text
(a) Preliminary objections may be filed by any party to any pleading and are limited to the following grounds:
(1) lack of jurisdiction over the subject matter of the action or the person of the defendant, improper venue or improper form or service of a writ of summons or a complaint;
(2) failure of a pleading to conform to law or rule of court or inclusion of scandalous or impertinent matter;
(3) insufficient specificity in a pleading;
(4) legal insufficiency of a pleading (demurrer);
(5) lack of capacity to sue, nonjoinder of a necessary party or misjoinder of a cause of action;
(6) pendency of a prior action or agreement for alternative dispute resolution;
(7) failure to exercise or exhaust a statutory remedy; and
(8) full, complete and adequate non-statutory remedy at law.
(b) All preliminary objections shall be raised at one time. They shall state specifically the grounds relied upon and may be inconsistent. Two or more preliminary objections may be raised in one pleading.
(c) (1) A party may file an amended pleading as of course within twenty days after service of a copy of preliminary objections. If a party has filed an amended pleading as of course, the preliminary objections to the original pleading shall be deemed moot.
(2) The court shall determine promptly all preliminary objections. If an issue of fact is raised, the court shall consider evidence by depositions or otherwise.
(d) If the preliminary objections are overruled, the objecting party shall have the right to plead over within twenty days after notice of the order or within such other time as the court shall fix.
(e) If the filing of an amendment, an amended pleading or a new pleading is allowed or required, it shall be filed within twenty days after notice of the order or within such other time as the court shall fix.
(f) Objections to any amended pleading shall be made by filing new preliminary objections.
Amendment history: The provisions of this Rule 1028 adopted June 25, 1946, effective January 1, 1947; amended March 28, 1973, effective July 1, 1973; amended July 18, 1991, effective January 1, 1992, 21 Pa.B. 3400; amended October 24, 2003, effective 9 months after the date of the Order, 33 Pa.B. 5506; amended December 16, 2003, effective July 1, 2004, 34 Pa.B. 9; amended November 2, 2005, effective immediately, 35 Pa.B. 6318; amended June 28, 2016, effective August 1, 2016, 46 Pa.B. 3797. Immediately preceding text appears at serial pages (307556) and (366149).
Plain-English Summary (for reference only — not a substitute for the rule text above)
This summary is not the rule. The rule text controls.
Preliminary objections are a way for one side in a lawsuit to challenge another side's paperwork before the case moves forward. Instead of answering the claims right away, a party can point out problems with how the case was filed or how the paperwork was written. Common reasons include the wrong court hearing the case, bad service of papers, unclear or missing information, or a legal claim that does not hold up even if everything in it were true.
A party has to raise all of these objections at the same time in one filing, not one at a time. The rules let someone list several different objections together, even if some of them do not fit perfectly together. This keeps the process efficient so the court can sort out these issues early instead of dragging out over many separate filings.
Once objections are filed, the other side gets a chance to fix their paperwork. They have 20 days to file a corrected version of their pleading, and if they do, the original objections no longer matter because they are replaced by the new version. The court will also review any objections that are still relevant and decide whether they have merit, sometimes gathering evidence if there is a factual disagreement.
If the court rejects the objections, the person who raised them then gets 20 days to respond to the original claims. If the court requires or allows a new or amended version of a pleading, that also has to be filed within 20 days, unless the judge sets a different deadline. Any objections to a newly amended pleading have to be raised again through a fresh set of preliminary objections, not the old ones.
Committee Notes
Of the three grounds available to challenge venue, only improper venue may be raised by preliminary objection as provided by Rule 1006(e). Forum non conveniens and inability to hold a fair and impartial trial are raised by petition as provided by Rule 1006(d)(1) and (2).
See Rule of Appellate Procedure 311(b) for interlocutory appeals as of right from orders sustaining jurisdiction and venue.
The defense of the bar of a statute of frauds or statute of limitations can be asserted only in a responsive pleading as new matter under Rule 1030.
An agreement to arbitrate may be asserted by preliminary objection or by petition to compel arbitration pursuant to the Uniform Arbitration Act, 42 Pa.C.S. § 7304, or the common law, 42 Pa.C.S. § 7342(a).
Preliminary objections raising an issue under subdivision (a)(1), (5), (6), (7) or (8) cannot be determined from facts of record. In such a case, the preliminary objections must be endorsed with a notice to plead or no response will be required under Rule 1029(d).
However, preliminary objections raising an issue under subdivision (a)(2), (3) or (4) may be determined from facts of record so that further evidence is not required.
Rule 239.5 requires every court to promulgate Local Rule 1028(c) describing the local court procedure governing preliminary objections.
