U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in Boston. Photo: Google Saying 'No Answer Is Required' Is Insufficient Under Fed Rules of Civil Procedure, Court Says in Novel Ruling
"Nothing in Rule 8(b) permits a party to refuse to respond to an allegation because it purportedly is a 'legal conclusion' or 'speaks for itself,'" wrote U.S. District Judge Gorton for the District of Massachusetts.
October 30, 2024 at 03:11 PM
3 minute read
In a novel decision this week, a federal judge in Massachusetts weighed whether a defendant's somewhat nonresponsive answers to a complaint, such as saying a document "speaks for itself," constituted a sufficient legal pleading.
Residential designer Royal Oaks Design moved to strike Indian Farm Estates' answer to a copyright complaint, which claimed the plaintiff's allegation is a "'legal conclusion to which no answer is required'" and pointed to a document that "'speaks for itself.'" Royal Oaks argued that such responses were insufficient under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(b), which requires a party to admit, deny, or claim lack of knowledge, according to an opinion filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts case captioned Kiernan Joseph Liebl v. Indian Farm Estates.
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