Court Opinion

ID: 9483685
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:28:56.857285+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:47.223927
License: Public Domain

FLAUM, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the judgment. Making all reasonable inferences for the plaintiff, as the district court and we must do at this stage, the complaint states a claim under 26 U.S.C. § 7431(a)(2). The allegation of obtaining the returns “in violation of” the statute, combined with the allegations of the individual defendants pursuing an agreed “course of action” which they concealed from the plaintiffs, of “someone” forging Hrubec’s signature, and of “fur*965ther ... harm if the ... returns are made public to a greater extent than they [already] have been,” creates a reasonable inference of disclosure by one or more of the defendants.
Even if no such inference could have been drawn from the complaint as originally worded, the plaintiffs should have been allowed to amend the complaint, as they requested leave to do in their response to the motion to dismiss. The supporting affidavit made it clear that the plaintiffs were ready to allege disclosure by defendant Zarbo. The plaintiffs had filed only one complaint and only four months earlier. This is not a situation of multiple deficient filings. District courts should be cautious not to dismiss cases on the basis of a strict reading of an original complaint.
Of course, the plaintiffs could have avoided this dismissal and appeal in the first place by simply alleging disclosure in so many words. They also could have filed an amended complaint instead of a response to the motion to dismiss. Their reluctance, expressed at argument, based on uncertainty about which defendant disclosed the returns to the others or forged the signature misses the point. The complaint could simply have alleged disclosure by “one of the named defendants;” there is no 9(b) particularity requirement for this complaint. Discovery is the common and proper vehicle for gathering specific information in support of the allegations of a complaint.
Because the district court did not base its holding on bad faith, we have no need to review the issue. This is especially true because the plaintiffs are ready to allege acts which undoubtedly show bad faith, as the majority recognized in its discussion dealing with Davidson. Therefore, I believe we should await an appropriate case before addressing the issue, instead of reflecting on the likely outcome in this circuit.