Smith v. City Of Chicago et al

Filing 30

MEMORANDUM Order Signed by the Honorable Milton I. Shadur on 1/8/2013:Mailed notice(srn, )

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
EASTERN DIVISION

SHONNE SMITH,
Plaintiff,
v.
CITY OF CHICAGO, et al.,
Defendants.

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Case No. 12 C 7173

MEMORANDUM ORDER
Defendant City of Chicago ("City") has filed its Answer and Affirmative Defenses
("ADs") to the pro se Complaint brought against it and unidentified police officers by Shonne
Smith ("Smith"). This memorandum order is issued sua sponte to address some problematic
aspects of that responsive pleading.
To begin with, this Court is appreciative of the efforts by City's counsel to address each of
Smith's allegations, which are understandably not presented in the same organized form that a
lawyer would submit. It appears that City's counsel has responded to each of Smith's allegations,
and counsel's insertion of numbered paragraphs is very helpful for that purpose.
That said, the frequent attempted invocations of Fed. R. Civ. P. ("Rule") 8(b)(5) as a
proposed disclaimer (Answer ¶¶ 1 through 6) inexplicably fail to track the claimed roadmap
marked out by that rule -- see App'x ¶ 5 to State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Riley, 199 F.R.D.
276, 279 (N.D. Ill. 2001). Because that error is all-pervasive, it makes most sense to strike the
entire Answer with leave to replead.
That conclusion is fortified by the problems with City's purported ADs. Here they are:

1.

ADs 1 and 4 have no business in this lawsuit, for Smith has not
advanced any state law claims. Those ADs are also stricken, this
time without leave to replead.

2.

AD 3 appears to have no basis, given the nature of Smith's claim -it does not seem that mitigation of damages could play any role
here. Hence that AD is also stricken, but if City has anything
specific to assert in that regard as a matter of notice pleading
(which is incumbent on defendants as well as plaintiffs), that may
be done in the amended responsive pleading provided for in the
next paragraph.

Under the circumstances, City's entire pleading is stricken. Leave is granted to file a
self-contained amended responsive pleading on or before January 21, 2013.

__________________________________________
Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge
Date: January 8, 2013

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