Minuge Order Form (06997)

United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois

N f Assigned Jud; i Sitting Judge if Other
or Magistrate Judge |, Milton I. Shadur than Assigned Judge
CASE NUMBER 01C 1419 DATE 4/24/2001
CASE Howard Communications vs. Golf Gifts and Gallery, Inc.
TITLE

[In the following box (a) indicate the party filing the motion, e.g., plaintiff, defendant, 3rd party plaintiff, and (b) state briefly the nature
of the motion being presented]

MOTION:

DOCKET ENTRY:

(1) Qo Filed motion of [ use listing in “Motion” box above.]

(2) o Brief in support of motion due

() Oo Answer brief to motion due____. Reply to answer briefdue____.

(4) im Ruling/Hearing on___set for___—_at

(5) o Status hearing[held/continued to] [set for/re-set for]on__setfor____—_at.

(6) Oo Pretrial conference[held/continued to] [set for/re-set for] on__set for at.

(7) oO Trial[set for/re-set for]on____at

(8) o [Bench/Jury trial] [Hearing] held/continued to at

(9) ao This case is dismissed [with/without] prejudice and without costs[by/agreement/pursuant to]
CUFRCP4(m) General Rule21 CFRCP41(a)(1) [1 FRCP41(a)(2).

ao) «of [Other docket entry] Enter Memorandum Opinion and Order. Unless Golf Gifts files an

appropriate amendment to its Answer in this Court’s chambers on or before May 3, 2001 that provides
adequate notice of the claimed predicate for any laches or estoppel defense AD 9 and AD 4 will be
stricken.

(1) [For further detail see order attached to the original minute order.]

No notices required, advised in open court.

No notices required.

umber of notices

VY | Notices mailed by judge’s staff.

Notified counsel by telephone.

Docketing to mail notices.

Mail AO 450 form,

Copy to judge/magistrate judge.

dato mailed notice

courtroom wee
SN deputy’s sw
initials

Date/time received in
central Clerk’s Office mailing deputy initials



IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
EASTERN DIVISION
HOWARD COMMUNICATIONS LTD.,

Plaintiff,

)
)
)
)
v. ) No. 01 C 1419
)
GOLF GIFTS AND GALLERY, INC., )

)

)

Defendant.

peer

APR 25 206
Golf Gifts and Gallery, Inc. ("Golf Gifts”) has filed its

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

Answer, Affirmative Defenses (“ADs”) and Counterclaims to the
Complaint brought against it by Howard Communications Ltd.
(“Howard”). This memorandum order is issued sua sponte to call
for correction of some flaws in that responsive pleading.

To begin with, Golf Gifts’ admission of all of Howard’s
allegations in Complaint 41 is coupled with a meaningless denial
of “all remaining allegations of paragraph 1.” That second
sentence of Answer 41 is stricken.

Next, several of Golf Gifts’ claimed ADs misperceive that
concept--see App. 95 of State Farm v. Riley, 2001 WL 185486.
Here are the problematic ADs:

1. AD 1 is simply wrong when Howard’s allegations are
taken at face value (as they must be for this purpose).

AD 1 is stricken.

2. AD 2 is at odds with Complaint $10 and is also

stricken.


Date:

3. AD 3 is belied by Complaint 9914 and 15. It too is
stricken.

4. AD 4 is flawed because it does not explain what
assertedly indispensable parties are missing. Absent a
supplementary submission explaining the claimed deficiency,
to be filed in this Court’s chambers on or before May 3,
2001, that AD will also be stricken.

5. AD 5 is in direct conflict with Complaint 913. It
is also stricken.

6. ADs 7 and 8 betray a mistakenly expansive notion of
the Rule 9(b) requirement of particularity (see Leatherman

vy. Tarrant Cty. Narcotics Intelligence & Coordination Unit,

507 U.S. 163, 168 (1993)). They too are stricken.

7. AD 9 cannot stand because of its lack of
particularity--it is wholly uninformative. Unless Golf
Gifts files an appropriate amendment to its Answer in this
Court’s chambers on or before the same May 3 date that
provides adequate notice of the claimed predicate for any

laches or estoppel defense, it too will be stricken.

Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge

April 24, 2001