Cite as 2013 Ark. 232
wholesale adopt and apply, with little to no discussion, this court's analysis in Seth v. St. Edward Mercy Medical Center, 375 Ark. 413, 291 S.W.3d 179 (2009). In Seth, this court held that the hospital's failure to plead the defense of charitable immunity until its amended answer and motion for summary judgment did not operate to waive its immunity defense. This court observed that charitable immunity was an affirmative defense required by Arkansas Rule of Civil Procedure 8 to be specifically asserted in a responsive pleading, and, because it was not a defense listed in Ark. R. Civ. P. 12(h)(1), it could be raised in an amended answer under Ark. R. Civ. P. 15., and not be considered waived.[1]
In direct contrast is the defense of sovereign immunity. The majority and concurring opinion fail to recognize that whether a waiver of sovereign immunity has occurred has absolutely nothing to do with when the defense was pled or if it even was. As already noted, the defense of sovereign immunity is waived, among two other ways, by the State's seeking of specific relief. Once the State has sought that specific relief, the defense of sovereign immunity has been waived, period. It cannot be "unwaived" simply by pleading sovereign immunity in a subsequent pleading! Such a tenet is simply nonsensical and completely upends our well-settled law regarding sovereign immunity.
In its answer to the initial complaint, the Commission challenged the validity of the trademarks at issue and specifically requested a declaratory judgment to that effect—in other words, it quite clearly sought specific and affirmative relief. Whether it subsequently removed
- ↑ The court qualified this holding by stating that it could be raised in an amended answer, "unless there is a motion to strike the pleading, and the court finds that prejudice results." Seth, 375 Ark. at 419, 291 S.W.3d at 184.
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