Court Opinion

ID: 9481139
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:09:24.621453+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:07.469431
License: Public Domain

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
In my view, the district court disposed of this case prematurely. A motion to dismiss for failure to state a cause of action should be granted only when it is clear that “the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief.” Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 102, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957). That standard is hardly satisfied here ... as my brothers’ discomfort with the sparseness of the record adequately demonstrates. We ought not retreat into seman-tical hypertechnicality over what is alleged and what is not alleged in the complaint; permitting the litigation to proceed at least past this initial stage might well shed significant light on the events that precipitated the lawsuit.
At the very least, before affirming this dismissal, it would be prudent to request the views of the EEOC as amicus. Charged with the administration of the statute, that agency might well be able to enlighten us with respect to the applicabili*722ty of congressional age discrimination policy to executive compensation contracts.