RAUSCH MSJ analyzed

ANATOMY OF TYPICAL RAUSCH PMSJ

The RAUSCH debt collection lawfirm's standard motion for summary judgment (PMSJ) consists of five unpaginated pages subdivided into four sections enumerated with Roman numerals:

I SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT

II EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT OF MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

III ARGUMENT AND AUTHORITIES

IV CONCLUSION AND PRAYER

The structure is common and unremarkable. So is the title: Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment. 

(--> Sample RAUSCH PMSJ).

BASIS OF RAUSCH MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

The Argument and Authorities section recites the well-know evidentiary standard for summary judgment (traditional summary judgment, rather no-evidence summary judgment), and identifies the sole basis on which summary judgment is sought: Breach of Contract

            

Although RAUSCH typically relies on a contract that has a choice of law clause specifying that the law of another state, it only cites to Texas and federal cases. RAUSCH attorneys are not known for filing motions for judicial notice of foreign law and therefore routinely waive the choice-of-law issue.

            

DAMAGES SOUGHT BY SUMMARY JUDGMENT

            

As may be expected, the dollar amount of damages for which RAUSCH seeks summary judgment matches the amount stated in its original petition as the balance "due". There may, however, be a minor discrepancy between pleadings and motion. What has been seen at least some RAUSCH cases is that the petition includes a request for prejudgment interest, but the motion for summary judgment seeks post-judgment interest only. Except to the extent interest accrued before the judgment is included in the "outstanding balance" amount, the MSJ does not claim pre-judgment as a separate item of damages. While the proposed judgment attached to the motion has a line-item for prejudgment interest, the amount is shown as $0.00. Of course, this scenario may not be present in all cases, and a caveat is warranted in that regard. After all, the fact that the template for the judgment contains a data field for the amount of prejudgment interest suggests that the value may not always be zero. 

            

CATCH-ALL REQUEST FOR UNSPECIFIED ADDITIONAL RELIEF

            

Like the pleading template, RAUSCH's PMSJ template includes a request for "all further relief to which Plaintiff may be entitled." This is clearly inappropriate in the context of summary judgment, because the summary judgment motion itself must state the basis, and must be accompanied by conclusive evidence to show the movant's entitlement to relief. If the nature of the additional relief is not even specified, it cannot be known what kind of evidence would be needed to meet the summary judgment standard on that nebulous component of a plaintiff's claim. It is well-settled that a trial court commits reversible error if it grants more relief than expressly sought in the motion and supported by competent evidence.  

            

THE SUMMARY JUDGMENT EVIDENCE

To support a motion for summary judgment, RAUSCH attorneys typically file a Business Records Affidavit with attachments. The characteristics vary depending on the identity of the creditor, and therefore need to be analyzed separately.