Also known as: superseded pleadings · superseding pleading · amended pleading
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
An earlier version of a pleading replaced by an amended pleading in the same action. The superseded pleading may be offered against the filing party as evidence of a prior inconsistent statement or for impeachment.
Spencer Silver serves a complaint on Sterling Manufacturing alleging breach of contract. Sterling files an answer. Spencer later serves an amended complaint adding a fraud count based on newly discovered emails. The original complaint is now the superseded pleading. Sterling must serve its response to the amended complaint within fourteen days of service.
Santiago Sanchez sues Sterling Dynamics after a vehicle rollover. His original complaint alleges that driver intoxication proximately caused the accident. After Sanchez amends to drop that claim, Sterling Dynamics offers the superseded pleading at trial to impeach Sanchez. The court admits the document as a prior inconsistent statement by the plaintiff.
Plaintiff sustained serious injuries on November 8, 1964, when the Scout vehicle in which he was a passenger plunged 500 feet down Nine Mile Canyon Road near Mojave, California. The road was dry and twenty feet wide, and the vehicle had been traveling at only ten to fifteen miles per hour. The owner and driver had previously traversed the same road in the Scout without incident. Both the driver and plaintiff suffered retrograde amnesia following the accident and could not testify about its circumstances. Following the accident, it was discovered that the gear box of the Scout had broken. Plaintiff contended that the break occurred on the highway due to metal fatigue in the aluminum 380 material from which the gear box was manufactured, causing the vehicle to go out of control. Defendant asserted that the gear box broke upon impact as the vehicle fell into the canyon and that the accident resulted from driver negligence or collapse of the roadway. At trial, plaintiff presented expert testimony that aluminum 380 was unsuitable for the gear box, that malleable iron was a stronger material, and that defendant had changed to malleable iron in manufacturing the gear box three years after the accident in 1967. Experts also testified regarding two other accidents involving similar failures of aluminum 380 gear boxes in Scout vehicles. The jury returned a verdict awarding plaintiff $700,000. Defendant appealed the judgment, challenging the trial court's admission of evidence regarding the post-accident change in materials, testimony about other accidents, refusal to admit a superseded complaint from a prior trial between the parties, and denial of a motion for mistrial related to hearsay testimony read from the prior proceeding. The matter came before the California Supreme Court on this appeal.
View caseAn original pleading becomes superseded once a party files and serves a proper amended pleading that replaces it in the same action. The amendment renders the prior version inoperative for most purposes going forward.
Supporting sources
Yes. Superseded pleadings are generally admissible against the filing party both as substantive evidence of a prior inconsistent statement and for impeachment. Courts admit the allegations even though the pleading has been replaced.
Supporting sources
Yes. Once an amended pleading is served, the opposing party must respond within the time remaining on the original schedule or within fourteen days after service of the amendment, whichever is later. The superseded pleading no longer controls the deadline.
Supporting sources
No. Even an unverified superseded pleading may be admitted if it contains statements attributable to the party. Lack of verification affects weight, not admissibility, provided the party had an opportunity to review or adopt the allegations.
Supporting sources
…of the vehicle. The action against the driver was dismissed prior to the trial of the previous action. Defendant urges that a superseded pleading is admissible both for purposes of impeachment and as substantive evidence of a prior inconsistent statement under sections 770 and 1235. However, the complaint in which the allegation was…