Opinion
No. 10 C 428.
February 22, 2010
MEMORANDUM ORDER
Defendants Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health Hospital and Mark Frey have filed their Answer and Affirmative Defenses ("ADs") to the employment discrimination Complaint brought against them by Lynn Austrheim ("Austrheim"). This memorandum order is issued sua sponte to address two problematic aspects of that responsive pleading.
To begin with, each of Answer ¶¶ 8, 13.2, 13.3, 13.5, 13.6 and 13.7 invariably follow a properly articulated invocation of the disclaimer permitted by Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(b)(5) by a denial of the allegations that are the subject of those disclaimers. That is of course oxymoronic — how can a party that asserts (presumably in good faith) that it lacks even enough information to form a belief as to the truth of an allegation then proceed todeny it in accordance with Rule 11(b)? Accordingly all of those purported denials are stricken.
As for the ADs, AD 2 seems on its face to add nothing to AD 1. If defense counsel views matters differently, AD 2 must be fleshed out to identify any claimed defects in the assertion of Austrheim's claims. Absent such a filing on or before March 5, 2010, AD 2 will be stricken as well.