In a breach of action and infringement case, the Southern District of New York ordered the parties to submit “short and plain” statements as required by Fed Rule Civ. P. 8(a)(2). According to the judge, “a troubling trend toward prolixity is infecting court dockets”. “A growing number of attorneys, from solo practitioners to big law” partners, are ignoring rule 8 and its exhortation that “[a] pleading…must contain…a short and plain statement of the claim…”
In this case, Plaintiff’s complaint was 175 paragraph with 1,400 pages of exhibits, while Defendants’ answer was 210 pages, plus voluminous exhibits.”
The judge reminded the parties that there is ample authority empowering courts to dismiss pleadings that do not comply with Rule 8 but deemed it unfair to do this in this instance and was satisfied with inviting the parties to submit amendments compliant with the mentioned structure.
March 24, 2015
The UPS Store, Inc. et al v. Hagan et al, (S.D.N.Y. March. 24, 2015) is available at https://ia902505.us.archive…
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