Opinion
No. 04 C 6246.
December 10, 2004
MEMORANDUM ORDER
Nation Pizza Products ("Nation Pizza") has filed its Answer and Affirmative Defenses to the employment discrimination Complaint brought against it by Robert Jiles. This memorandum order is issued sua sponte to address a basic flaw in federal pleading requirements reflected in that responsive pleading.
This is one of three separate answers, filed during the first two days of this month in cases on this Court's calendar, each of which contains the same too-often-repeated error by defense counsel. Little wonder, then, that several years ago this Court ended up issuing an appendix to a published opinion (State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Riley, 199 F.R.D. 276, 278 (N.D. Ill. 2001)) that lists seven common errors in responsive pleading — that issuance reflected this Court's desire to minimize the need for extended and repetitive typing on those subjects by its faithful secretary. In this case the tainted statements are found in Answer ¶¶ 4, 5 and 6, all of which are stricken (see App. ¶ 1 to State Farm).
Leave is of course granted to Nation Pizza's counsel to correct the offending paragraphs by an amendment to the existing Answer (this Court does not require the filing of a full-blown Amended Answer as a replacement). That amendment is to be filed in this Court's chambers on or before December 22, 2004, failing which the corresponding allegations of the Complaint will be deemed to have been admitted.