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Summary Judgment

Summary judgment is one given in favor of a plaintiff without a plenary trial of the action. The normal steps of filing all necessary pleadings, hearing evidence of witnesses and addresses by counsel thereafter before the court’s judgment are not followed. The materials on which such is based are the writ of summons, statement of claim, and sometimes the defense, then the plaintiff’s application for judgment by motion or summons with an affidavit in support. There may also be counter-affidavit by the defendant.[1]…

This paper is to analyze the general procedure under which summary judgment could be granted by the court. Whether it is granted based on the fact that the defendant has no defense. Does a general denial of the defendant’s statement of defense inform the court that the defendant does not have a defense? In other words, does the court grant the application simply because it wants to simply dispose of cases without delay?…

The author is of the view that even though the application for summary judgment is one of the shortest ways to obtain judgment without any plenary trial, it should not be granted just for the fact that the defendant has no defense…

In Halsbury’s Law’s of England[4], the learned editors discussed what should be of concern to the court in its consideration before summary judgment application can be granted as: “The power to give summary judgment under Order 14 is intended to apply in clear cases, where there is no reasonable doubt that the applicant is entitled to judgment and where it is inexpedient to allow a defendant to defend for mere purposes of delay. Leave to defend will therefore be given where the defendant shows that he has a fair case, that there is an issue or question which ought to be tried, or that there are reasonable grounds for setting up a defense or even a fair probability that he has a bona fide defense.” The learned editors statement on the circumstances under which…

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