Doleata Johnson v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Company

Summary

The United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri considers Plaintiff Doleata Johnson’s motion to strike State Farm’s affirmative defenses under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(f). The court holds that the defenses generally provide sufficient notice under Eighth Circuit precedent, declines to strike the failure-to-state-a-claim defense, and strikes State Farm’s reservation of the right to assert additional defenses. The motion is granted in part and denied in part.

Holdings

1. In the Eighth Circuit, an affirmative defense need not satisfy the Twombly and Iqbal plausibility standards; a bare assertion may be sufficient under Rule 8(c) so long as the defense provides adequate notice and does not result in unfair surprise.
2. Although failure to state a claim is technically not an affirmative defense, the court may decline to strike it when leaving it in the answer causes neither harm nor benefit to either party.
3. A party may not reserve in its answer the right to assert additional affirmative defenses that later come to light during discovery; any later-added defenses must be asserted through the procedures governing amendment of pleadings.

Questions Presented

1. Whether State Farm's affirmative defenses were insufficiently pleaded under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 8(b) and 8(c) and should be stricken under Rule 12(f).
2. Whether the Eighth Circuit's decision in Crutcher v. MultiPlan, Inc. requires affirmative defenses to satisfy the pleading standards of Twombly and Iqbal.
3. Whether failure to state a claim may be included as an affirmative defense and, if technically improper, whether it should nevertheless be stricken.
4. Whether a party may reserve the right in its answer to assert additional affirmative defenses discovered later.

Disposition

other