Definition
An answer is the formal written pleading by which a defendant responds to a plaintiff's complaint or bill, setting out the defendant's defenses, admissions, and denials. The term carries distinct meanings depending on the procedural context:
1. Common-law pleading. Any pleading framed to meet a prior pleading that presents matters of fact by way of defense. Distinguished from a demurrer, which contests the legal sufficiency of the prior pleading rather than its facts.
2. Equity pleading. A written defense filed by a defendant in response to a bill or information filed in a court of equity. The equity answer served a dual function: it both defended against the bill and operated as sworn testimony, since equity procedure required the defendant to answer the complainant's charges under oath, permitting the complainant to use the answer as evidence.
3. Code pleading and modern civil procedure. The formal written statement by which a defendant responds to each allegation of the complaint, admits or denies each claim, and asserts any affirmative defenses or counterclaims. Under modern rules derived from the Field Code reforms and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the answer displaces the older common-law special pleas in bar and the general issue.
4. Responses to other procedural demands. The term also applies to written responses filed by witnesses, garnishees, or other parties in response to interrogatories, depositions, or similar demands.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A response or reply; something said or done in reaction to a statement or question; a solution to a problem; also, specifically, a document filed in response to a complaint.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To speak or write in return to a call, question, charge, or accusation; to reply or respond.
The ordinary meaning captures the general idea of response, and Wiktionary's fourth definition actually tracks the legal usage. The meaningful gap is narrower than for many legal terms but still real: in legal procedure, an answer is not merely a reply but a pleading with precise formal requirements — it must respond to each allegation, it triggers procedural consequences, and its omissions (failure to deny) may constitute admissions. A layperson's "answer" is informal and unbounded; a legal answer is a structured document with defined content requirements and legal effects.
Common Confusion
EQUITY ANSWER VS. RESPONSIVE PLEADING
The equity answer's sworn-testimony function has no modern counterpart and is frequently misread in historical sources. Before the merger of law and equity, an equity answer under oath was admissible evidence for the defendant and could only be overcome by two witnesses or one witness plus corroborating circumstances. This evidentiary weight disappeared when equity and law merged and discovery replaced the sworn bill-and-answer procedure.
Core Elements
Under modern code and rules pleading, a legally sufficient answer generally requires:
1. A response to each allegation of the complaint — admitted, denied, or stated as unknown (which operates as a denial).
2. Affirmative defenses, which must be pleaded in the answer or are waived.
3. Counterclaims or cross-claims, if the defendant elects to assert them.
4. Filing within the applicable time limit after service of the complaint.
Under equity pleading, additional elements applied: the answer had to respond to each charge in the bill, typically under oath, and could include a cross-bill if the defendant sought affirmative relief.
Why It Matters in Research
The word "answer" appears across centuries of legal sources but means substantially different things depending on the procedural regime in force. Researchers working in the Law Mind corpus should track three major transitions:
First, the common-law to equity distinction. In pre-merger sources, "answer" in an equity proceeding carried the sworn-testimony function described above. An equity defendant's answer admitting facts was powerful evidence. Sources from English chancery practice and American equity courts before the merger of law and equity must be read with this in mind.
Second, the Field Code reforms (mid-19th century onward). The New York Code of Procedure of 1848 and its successors abolished the common-law system of special pleas and the general issue, replacing them with the complaint-and-answer structure still used today. American cases and treatises from the transition period (roughly 1848–1940) may use "answer" to mean either the old equity answer, the new code answer, or may conflate the two. The Massachusetts public statutes definition quoted in Black's first edition — expressly referencing the answer as taking "the place of special pleas in bar, and the general issue" — signals this transitional vocabulary.
Third, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (1938 onward). Federal practice standardized the answer as a relatively streamlined document, with a strong notice-pleading philosophy. Research in federal court records after 1938 will reflect this regime.
For corpus navigation: the term "answer" appears as a subterm in entries for bill, complaint, demurrer, general issue, and plea. Researchers tracing the evolution of defensive pleading should cross-reference those terms. In matrimonial and probate sources, the term "answer" also appears in the specialized sense of a respondent's defense to a petition, which follows equity conventions.
Historical Dictionary Support
The shelf sources agree on the core definition but reflect the procedural moment each dictionary was written in.
Burrill's Law Dictionary offers the clearest structural account, distinguishing the general sense (any fact-pleading in response to a prior pleading, excluding a demurrer) from the equity-specific sense (the defendant's detailed, sworn response to a bill in equity, citing Blackstone's Commentaries). Burrill's framing is the most analytically precise of the older sources.
Bouvier's Law Dictionary focuses almost exclusively on the equity answer, reflecting Bouvier's heavy chancery orientation. Bouvier emphasizes the dual function — defense and discovery — and the oath requirement, noting that the answer contains both the defendant's defense "and the examination of the defendant, on oath, as to the facts charged in the bill, of which discovery is sought." This is useful for equity research but incomplete as a general definition.
Black's Law Dictionary (both editions) provides the broadest synthesis, covering common-law pleading, equity pleading, and code pleading in sequence. The second edition text is nearly identical to the first, suggesting the editors saw no reason to revise for the period between editions. Black's also notes the specialized matrimonial and admiralty usage in the English Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division.
Anderson's Dictionary of Law situates "answer" within a comparative framework, linking it to the Latin respondere and noting its application to responses by witnesses and garnishees — a useful reminder that the term is not confined to party pleadings.
Rapalje & Lawrence does not contain a substantive entry for "answer" in the excerpted material, though the dictionary covers related procedural terms extensively.
None of the historical sources fully account for the post-1938 Federal Rules regime or the disappearance of the equity oath requirement after law-equity merger. Researchers relying solely on these dictionaries for modern federal practice will find the definitions incomplete.
Jurisdictional Note
The equity answer's sworn-testimony function persisted longer in some American states than others following 19th-century procedural reforms. English practice abolished the sworn equity answer by statute (Chancery Amendment Act and subsequent reforms) before many American states followed suit. Researchers working in pre-merger state equity records should verify the applicable local rules, as the evidentiary weight of an equity answer varied by jurisdiction and period.