Support’s counsel).

Che. cts

Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge

Date: July 16, 2001


a claim for relief .?

2. ADs 2-4 and 6-10 are insufficiently informative.
ADs, like complaints, must follow the notice pleading regime
that governs federal pleading, and the generalized and
conclusory assertions in those ADs do not apprise opposing
counsel or this Court as to what WW191 is really asserting.
If any or all of those ADs is to be retained in the Amended
Answer ordered hereafter, that must be done in sufficiently
fleshed-out form.?

3. AD 5 does not conform to the concept of Rule 8(c)
and its relevant case law (see App. 95 to State Farm Mut.

Auto. Ins. Co, v. Riley, 199 F.R.D. 276, 279 (N.D. Ill.

2001)), for its basis is directly at odds with the

allegations of the Complaint.

To clear up all of the items referred to in this opinion,
the present Answer is stricken. Leave is however granted to file
a self-contained Amended Answer in this Court’s chambers on or

before July 27, 2001 (with a copy of course delivered to Jet

7 ‘Claim for relief” rather than “cause of action” is the

relevant concept for federal pleading purposes--see, e.g., NAACP
v. American Family Mut. Ins. Co., 978 F.2d 287, 292 (7% Cir.
1992).

> As to AD 8, that appears to assert a claimed defense

that, for this Court, requires WW191's counsel to identify some
responsible authority to support the legal position taken there.
If that AD is carried forward into the amended answer provided
for here, counsel should also be aware that the term is “de
minimis” and not “de minimus.”


Minute Ordee Farm (06/97) *

United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois

Name of Assigned Jud; i Sitting Judge if Oth
vor Magistrate Judge Milton 1, Shadur than Assigned Judge
CASE NUMBER 01 C 4264 DATE 7/16/2001
CASE Jet Support Services, Inc. vs. WW191, 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:

ql) o Filed motion of [ use listing in “Motion” box above.]

(2) oO Brief in support of motion due ‘

@) oO Answer brief to motion due___. Reply to answer brief due.

(4) oO Ruling/Hearing on __setfor___at

(5) im Status hearing[held/continued to] [set for/re-set for]on___setfor__-at__—.

(6) im Pretrial conference[held/continued to] [set for/re-set for]on__-setfor__— se at__

(7) oO Trial{set for/re-set for]on__at »

(8) oO [Bench/Jury trial] [Hearing] held/continued to__at

(9) oO This case is dismissed [with/without] prejudice and without costs[by/agreement/pursuant to}
COFRCP4(m) OGeneral Rule21 [I] FRCP41(a)(1)  FRCP41(a)(2).

ao if [Other docket entry] | Enter Memorandum Order. To clear up all of the items referred to in this

opinion, the present Answer is stricken. Leave is however granted to file a self-contained Amended
Answer in this Court’s chambers on or before July 27, 2001.

di) @ {For further detail see order attached to the original minute order.]

No notices required, advised in open court.

No notices required. ,
number of notices®:

J | Notices mailed by judge’s staff.

Notified counsel by telephone.

Docketing to mail notices. ()
Mail AO 450 form.

Copy to judge/magistrate judge. Peak UR COCKOTING

GI JUL 17 AN 7: 5]

courtroom date mailed notice

SN deputy’s.

v SN
initials

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



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

JET SUPPORT SERVICES, INC.,

DOCKETED

)
)
Plaintiff, ) J
) UL i
v. ) No. 01 ¢ 4264 ? 2009
)
ww191, INC., )
)
Defendant. )
MEMORANDUM ORDER
WW191, Inc. ("WW191”) has cured the inadvertent flaw in its

original Notice of Removal (“Notice”) by filing an Amended Notice
that confirms the parties’ diversity of citizenship as well as
the requisite amount in controversy. Unfortunately, the Answer
to Complaint that WW191 has now filed in response to this action
brought by Jet Support Services, Inc. (“Jet Support”) contains
some errors that need curing (in part, but not at all entirely,
those errors stem from the obvious unfamiliarity of the lawyer
who presumably prepared that pleading with some aspects of this
District Court’s rules and procedures’).

To begin with, the Answer does not conform to this District
Court’s LR 10.1, which requires each responsive pleading to state
the substance of each of the adversary’s allegations, to be

followed by the respective responses (a requirement that is most

1 Although the Answer was signed on behalf of WW191 by

local counsel here in Chicago, the pleading itself is on the
office form of WW191's Los Angeles counsel (something entirely
consistent with the Answer’s verification that was signed by
WW191's President in Santa Monica).


{?

often complied with by repeating a complaint’s allegations in
haec verba, rather than counsel’s seeking to paraphrase those
allegations). That requirement has as its obvious purpose the
much greater ease of reading a single self-contained pleading to
see what matters are and what are not being placed in issue,
rather than having to jump back and forth between a separate
complaint and a separate answer.

Next, two nits in the present Answer merit brief mention.
One is the inadvertent typographical error that pervades the
pleading, in which “brach” appears instead of “breach” in a host
of places. And the other item that can be cured by the amended
pleading called for here is that the two paragraphs of the
Complaint that set out Jet Support’s prayers for relief are not
really allegations (“averments” is the term used in Fed. R. Civ.
P. (*Rule”) 8(b)), so that they therefore need not be answered as
the present responsive pleading has done.

To turn to substantive matters, several of the Affirmative
Defenses (“ADs”) set forth in the Answer contain defects that
need correction or amplification. Here they are:

1. AD 1, which is the essential equivalent of a Rule

12(b) (6) motion, is stricken. Both Rule 12(b) (6) and Rule

8(c) require acceptance of the Complaint’s allegations as

gospel, and in those terms Jet Support has certainly stated