Task: songer_typeiss

What follows is an opinion from a United States Court of Appeals.
Your task is to determine the general category of issues discussed in the opinion of the court. Choose among the following categories. Criminal and prisioner petitions- includes appeals of conviction, petitions for post conviction relief, habeas corpus petitions, and other prisoner petitions which challenge the validity of the conviction or the sentence or the validity of continued confinement. Civil - Government - these will include appeals from administrative agencies (e.g., OSHA,FDA), the decisions of administrative law judges, or the decisions of independent regulatory agencies (e.g., NLRB, FCC,SEC). The focus in administrative law is usually on procedural principles that apply to administrative agencies as they affect private interests, primarily through rulemaking and adjudication. Tort actions against the government, including petitions by prisoners which challenge the conditions of their confinement or which seek damages for torts committed by prion officials or by police fit in this category. In addition, this category will include suits over taxes and claims for benefits from government. Diversity of Citizenship - civil cases involving disputes between citizens of different states (remember that businesses have state citizenship). These cases will always involve the application of state or local law. If the case is centrally concerned with the application or interpretation of federal law then it is not a diversity case. Civil Disputes - Private - includes all civil cases that do not fit in any of the above categories. The opposing litigants will be individuals, businesses or groups.

HOUGH, Circuit Judge
(after stating the facts as above). Two questions are here raised; the .first that plaintiff did not make put a prima facie case. We have above recited what we think was proven and no question of law would be elucidated by going into the matter further. It is held that plaintiff gave enough evidence to warrant a verdict, in the absence of any controverting proof.
The other question is whether the above-quoted statement of the answer, viz. the denial of any “knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief” that plaintiff «* • • ;heretofore sold and delivered to the defendant divers goods, wares, and merchandise, for which plaintiff has been paid in full” should be treated as an allegation that the purchaser (defendant below) had procured from plaintiff below an agreement that payment of the amount of the credit should be payment 'for all the steel shipped from Montreal, no matter how much there was of it. This was substantially the only defense that plaintiff in error had, and it attempted to show an oral modification of the written contract to the effect above stated.
It is quite true that the pleading as it stands is absurd. It is said that if plaintiff below did not intend to accept this as a plea of payment, it should have moved against the pleading and not permitted the ease to go to trial in such form. We perceive no obligation on a plaintiff to seek to amend mere absurdities in a defendant’s- answer. The pleading as it stood denied aE the material allegations of the complaint. There was an issue, and a plain one. In the light of what is now admitted, and was certainly known to this plaintiff in error, that issue was not weE chosen, to say the least; but, as it stood, we see no reason why plaintiff below should have paid any attention to such nonsense as the denial of information and belief we have quoted. Much less can plaintiff below be blamed for not discerning in this meaningless form of words an affirmative plea of payment.
Judgment affirmed, with costs.

Question: What is the general category of issues discussed in the opinion of the court?
A. criminal and prisoner petitions
B. civil - government
C. diversity of citizenship
D. civil - private
E. other, not applicable
F. not ascertained
Answer:

Answer: C