Opinion ID: 2998715
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: standard of review

Text: We review de novo a district court’s grant of a motion to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, Small v. Chao, 398 F.3d 894, 897 (7th Cir. 2005), accepting as true all well-pleaded allegations in the complaint and drawing all reasonable inferences in the plaintiff’s favor. Cler v. Ill. Educ. Ass’n, 423 F.3d 726, 729 (7th Cir. 2005). Any written instrument attached to the complaint is considered a part of the complaint. Fed. R. Civ. P. 10(c). In this case, Moranski attached the Affinity Group Guidelines as an exhibit to his complaint and referred to the Guidelines in his complaint. The district court thus properly considered the Guidelines when it ruled on the motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim. See Witzke v. Femal, 376 F.3d 744, 749 (7th Cir. 2004); Tierney v. Vahle, 304 F.3d 734, 738-39 (7th Cir. 2002). A Title VII plaintiff need not set forth allegations of a prima facie case in the complaint. Swierkiewicz v. Sorema N.A., 534 U.S. 506, 508 (2002). Instead, a plaintiff alleging discrimination in violation of Title VII must only set forth in the complaint “a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Id. (quoting Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)). Nonetheless, the dismissal of a complaint for failure to state a claim is proper if “it is clear that no relief could be granted under any set of facts that could be proved consistent with the allegations.” Hishon v. King & Spaulding, 467 U.S. 69, 73 (1984); see also Storey v. Burns Int’l Sec. Servs., 390 F.3d 760, 765 (3d Cir. 2004) (affirming dismissal for failure to state a claim of discrimination on the basis of religion and national origin in violation of Title VII); Holman v. Indiana, 211 F.3d 399, 407 (7th Cir. 2000) (same for claim alleging sexual harassment in violation of Title VII). No. 05-1803 5