Carlson v. Mayflower Tours Inc. et al
Filing
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MEMORANDUM Order Signed by the Honorable Milton I. Shadur on 10/18/2012:Mailed notice(srn, )
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
EASTERN DIVISION
DIANNA CARLSON,
Plaintiff,
v.
MAYFLOWER TOURS, INC., et al.,
Defendants.
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No.
12 C 6656
MEMORANDUM ORDER
Mayflower Tours, Inc. (“Mayflower”) has filed its Answer to
the Complaint brought against it and two codefendants by Dianna
Carlson (“Carlson”), who seeks to proceed under the Americans
With Disability Act and with related state law claims.
Although
this Court knows Mayflower’s counsel to be an experienced and
respected practitioner, this time he has submitted a responsive
pleading that is problematic in two respects.
First, an entire group of Mayflower’s responses (Answer ¶¶13, 9, 14, 17, 27 and 28) are nonresponsive to the directive in
Fed. R. Civ. P. (“Rule”) 8(b)(1)(B) by stating that the
corresponding allegations by Carlson “are a legal conclusion, to
which no Answer is required.”
That is of course dead wrong--see
App’x ¶2 to State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Riley, 199 F.R.D.
276, 278 (N.D. Ill. 2001).1
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For example, jurisdiction is of course the ultimate legal
conclusion, and every litigant is duty bound to confirm its
existence or to identify its absence.
Second, nothing is added to a Rule 8(b)(5) disclaimer by a
demand for “strict proof,” whatever that may be.
see App’x ¶1 to State Farm.
In that respect
Hence that locution is stricken from
Answer ¶¶4, 5, 7, 8, 10 and 30.
Because the errors referred to here are so pervasive, the
entire Answer will be stricken, but with leave of course granted
to file a self-contained Amended Answer on or before October 29,
2012.
No charge is to be made to Mayflower by its counsel for
the added work and expense incurred in correcting counsel’s
errors.
Counsel are ordered to apprise his client to that effect
by letter, with a copy to be transmitted to this Court’s chambers
as an informational matter (not for filing).
________________________________________
Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge
Date:
October 18, 2012
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