Lopez et al v. Kelley et al

Filing 16

MEMORANDUM Order: Defense counsel are granted until June 22, 2015 to file an amendment to the existing Answer. (For further details see Memorandum Order) Signed by the Honorable Milton I. Shadur on 6/9/2015:Mailed notice(clw, )

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

ERNEST LOPEZ, SR., et al.,
Plaintiffs,
v.
MIKE KELLEY, in his official capacity as
SHERIFF of WILL COUNTY, ILLINOIS,
et al.,
Defendants.

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Case No. 15 C 2405

MEMORANDUM ORDER
All of the defendants in this multiparty action have filed a collective Answer to the
Complaint brought against them by four members of the Lopez family. This Court commends
that collective filing as the best and most efficient way to apprise any reader (such as this Court)
of the respects in which the parties so represented share common cause and the respects in which
their interests may diverge. 1
But having done so, defense counsel has forgotten that every defendant must respond to
every allegation in a complaint. 2 In this case a whole set of paragraphs (Answer ¶¶ 17 through
29, other than Answer ¶ 25) speak separately about defendant Deputies Beckman and Kuzma but

1

Indeed, when in some instances the same counsel representing multiple defendants
have filed a separate answer for each of them, this Court has been critical on that score because
that practice forces the reader to read multiple (often lengthy) responses to make the
determinations described in the text.
2

There is one exception: In situations in which the plaintiff or plaintiffs advance
allegations (say in a different count) that are asserted against fewer than all of the defendants,
there is no reason for the untargeted defendant or defendants to respond to that count.

are silent as to all other defendants, so that Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(b)(1)(B) has not been fully complied
with.
Accordingly defense counsel must return to the drawing board to clear up that omission
(that can be done through an amendment to the existing Answer, rather than by having to file a
fully self-contained Amended Answer). Defense counsel are granted until June 22, 2015 to file
such an amendment.

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Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge
Date: June 9, 2015

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