Mills v. Zeichner, No. 2:2023cv01130 - Document 16 (W.D. Wash. 2023)
Court Description: ORDER granting in part and denying in part Plaintiff's 10 Motion that Defendants Seventh, Eighth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Affirmative Defenses be Stricken. Signed by Judge James L. Robart. (SS)
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Mills v. Zeichner Doc. 16 Case 2:23-cv-01130-JLR Document 16 Filed 09/20/23 Page 1 of 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE 8 9 10 ALAN MILLS, CASE NO. C23-1130JLR ORDER Plaintiff, 11 v. 12 13 NOAH ZEICHNER, Defendant. 14 15 I. INTRODUCTION 16 Before the court is pro se Plaintiff Alan Mills’s motion to strike affirmative 17 defenses. (Mot. (Dkt. # 10); Reply (Dkt. # 15).) In response, Defendant Noah Zeichner 18 moves to voluntarily withdraw certain affirmative defenses and opposes Mr. Mills’s 19 motion to strike the remaining affirmative defenses. (Resp. (Dkt. # 14).) The court has 20 considered the parties’ submissions, the relevant portions of the record, and the governing 21 law. Being fully advised, the court GRANTS in part and DENIES in part Plaintiff’s 22 ORDER - 1 Dockets.Justia.com Case 2:23-cv-01130-JLR Document 16 Filed 09/20/23 Page 2 of 7 1 motion to strike affirmative defenses and GRANTS Defendant’s responsive motion to 2 withdraw certain affirmative defenses. 3 4 II. LEGAL STANDARD Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(c)(1) requires a party responding to a pleading 5 to “affirmatively state any avoidance or affirmative defense.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(c)(1). 6 Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(f), the “court may strike from a pleading an 7 insufficient defense or any redundant, immaterial, impertinent, or scandalous matter.” 8 Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(f). An affirmative defense may be insufficient as a matter of pleading 9 or as a matter of law. Cobra Sys., Inc. v. Unger, No. 8:16-cv-00569-ODW-JEM, 2016 10 WL 9383517, at *1 (C.D. Cal. Aug. 4, 2016). An affirmative defense is insufficiently 11 pleaded if it fails to provide the plaintiff “fair notice” of the defense asserted. Wyshak v. 12 City Nat’l Bank, 607 F.2d 824, 827 (9th Cir. 1979) (per curiam). “Fair notice” “only 13 requires describing the defense in general terms.” Kohler v. Flava Enters., Inc., 779 F.3d 14 1016, 1019 (9th Cir. 2015) (internal quotation marks omitted). However, the defense 15 “must be articulated to such a degree that the plaintiff is not subject to unfair surprise.” J 16 & J Sports Prods., Inc. v. Delgado, No. 1:12-CV-001945-LJO, 2013 WL 3288564, at *5 17 (E.D. Cal. June 28, 2013). An affirmative defense is insufficient as a matter of law if it 18 cannot succeed under any circumstances. Washington v. Franciscan Health Sys., 19 C17-5690BHS, 2018 WL 3546802, at *7 (W.D. Wash. July 24, 2018). 20 Courts generally disfavor motions to strike, given the strong policy preference for 21 resolving issues on the merits. See, e.g., Chao Chen v. Geo Grp., Inc., 297 F. Supp. 3d 22 1130, 1132 (W.D. Wash. 2018). Nevertheless, “where [a] motion [to strike] may have ORDER - 2 Case 2:23-cv-01130-JLR Document 16 Filed 09/20/23 Page 3 of 7 1 the effect of making the trial of the action less complicated, or have the effect of 2 otherwise streamlining the ultimate resolution of the action, the motion to strike will be 3 well taken.” California v. United States, 512 F. Supp. 36, 28 (N.D. Cal. 1981). Indeed, 4 the purpose of Rule 12(f) is to “help ‘avoid the expenditure of time and money that must 5 arise from litigating spurious issues by dispensing with those issues prior to trial.’” 6 Franciscan Health Sys., 2018 WL 3546802, at *7 (quoting Whittlestone, Inc. v. 7 Handi-Craft Co., 618 F.3d 970, 973 (9th Cir. 2010)). Whether to grant a motion to strike 8 lies within the discretion of the district court. Cal. Dep’t of Toxic Substances Control v. 9 Alco Pac., Inc., 217 F. Supp. 2d 1028, 1033 (C.D. Cal. 2002). When considering a 10 motion to strike, the court must view the pleadings in the light most favorable to the 11 pleading party. See, e.g., In re 2TheMart.com Secs. Litig., 114 F. Supp. 2d 955, 965 12 (C.D. Cal. 2000). 13 III. 14 ANALYSIS The court first addresses Mr. Zeichner’s responsive motion to withdraw certain 15 affirmative defenses, as it will dispose of several points of dispute raised by Mr. Mills’s 16 motion to strike. The court then turns to Mr. Mills’s motion, separately evaluating his 17 legal insufficiency and pleading insufficiency claims. 18 A. 19 Mr. Zeichner’s Responsive Motion The court GRANTS Mr. Zeichner’s motion to voluntarily withdraw affirmative 20 defenses one, four, nine, ten, thirteen through sixteen, and eighteen. The court, however, 21 denies as premature Mr. Zeichner’s request for “permission for leave to amend the 22 Answer if Defendant becomes aware of facts supporting [affirmative defense thirteen] ORDER - 3 Case 2:23-cv-01130-JLR Document 16 Filed 09/20/23 Page 4 of 7 1 during the course of discovery.” (Resp. at 12.) Mr. Zeichner may seek leave to amend 2 his answer at a later time when the issue becomes ripe for consideration. 3 B. Legal Insufficiency 4 Mr. Mills moves to strike affirmative defenses seven, eight, eleven, and twelve on 5 the basis that they are legally deficient. (See Mot. at 21; Reply at 12.) These affirmative 6 defenses are, respectively, “good faith,” “mitigation of damages,” “immunity,” and 7 “qualified immunity.” (Answer (Dkt. # 2-6) at 9-10.) With respect to affirmative 8 defense eight—mitigation of damages—Mr. Mills claims this defense is legally deficient 9 because it is redundant of affirmative defense fourteen. (See Mot. at 12; Answer at 10 10 (identifying affirmative defense fourteen as “mitigation of damages”).) However, 11 because Mr. Zeichner has already withdrawn affirmative defense fourteen, the court 12 concludes affirmative defense eight is not redundant of any other defenses. With respect 13 to affirmative defenses seven, eleven, and twelve, Mr. Mills fails to demonstrate that 14 these defenses cannot succeed under any circumstance. See Franciscan Health Sys., 15 2018 WL 3546802, at *7. His arguments instead appear to go to the merits of this 16 dispute. (See Mot. at 12-15.) The court therefore DENIES Mr. Mills’s request to strike 17 affirmative defenses seven, eight, eleven, and twelve on the basis that they are legally 18 deficient. 19 C. Pleading Insufficiency 20 Turning to the balance of Mr. Zeichner’s affirmative defenses, Mr. Mills seeks to 21 strike affirmative defenses two, three, five through eight, eleven, twelve, seventeen, and 22 nineteen through twenty-one without prejudice and with leave to amend on the basis that ORDER - 4 Case 2:23-cv-01130-JLR Document 16 Filed 09/20/23 Page 5 of 7 1 they are factually deficient. (See Mot. to Strike at 9-20; Reply at 12.) The court 2 concludes that affirmative defenses two, eight, nineteen, and twenty are insufficient, but 3 the remainder are not. The court addresses each grouping of affirmative defenses in turn. 4 1. Insufficiently Pleaded: Affirmative Defenses Two, Eight, Nineteen, and Twenty 5 These affirmative defenses are, respectively, “indispensable party,” “mitigation of 6 damages,” “lack of authority/legal justification,” and “first amendment privilege.” 7 (Answer at 9, 11.) Even considering Mr. Zeichner’s answer coupled with the factual 8 allegations in Mr. Mills’s complaint, and construing the pleadings in the light most 9 favorable to Mr. Zeichner, the court concludes that these defenses are not “articulated to 10 such a degree that the plaintiff is not subject to unfair surprise.” J & J Sports Prods., 11 Inc., 2013 WL 3288564, at *5. As pleaded, Mr. Zeichner’s indispensable party defense 12 does not provide fair notice of what party or parties he views as indispensable. (See 13 Answer at 9); see Tollefson v. Aurora Fin. Grp., Inc., No. C20-0297JLR, 2021 WL 14 462689, at *3 (W.D. Wash. Feb. 9, 2021) (striking “failure to join necessary parties” 15 defense on similar grounds). It also is not apparent from the pleadings how Mr. Mills 16 allegedly failed to mitigate his damages. (See Answer at 9); Tollefson, 2021 WL 462689, 17 at *3 (striking “failure to mitigate” defense on similar grounds). Mr. Zeichner’s “legal 18 authority/legal justification” defense is similarly vague as pleaded because it does not 19 identify the conduct for which Mr. Zeichner claims he lacked authority. (See Answer at 20 11); see Smith v. Cobb, 15-CV-176-GPC, 2017 WL 2350443, at *7 (S.D. Cal. May 30, 21 2017) (striking justification defense as vague and ambiguous). And finally, Mr. 22 ORDER - 5 Case 2:23-cv-01130-JLR Document 16 Filed 09/20/23 Page 6 of 7 1 Zeichner’s “first amendment privilege” defense does not provide fair notice of what 2 speech Mr. Zeichner views as protected. (See Answer at 11); see Polk v. Legal Recovery 3 Law Offices, 291 F.R.D. 485, 492 (S.D. Cal. 2013) (striking first amendment privilege 4 defense for which defendant provided no factual basis because “‘a reference to a 5 doctrine . . . is insufficient notice.’” (quoting Qarbon.com Inc. v. eHelp Corp., 315 F. 6 Supp. 1046, 1049 (N.D. Cal. 2004))). For these reasons, the court GRANTS Mr. Mills’s 7 motion to strike affirmative defenses two, eight, nineteen, and twenty with leave to 8 amend. 9 2. Sufficiently Pleaded: Affirmative Defenses Three, Five Through Seven, Eleven, Twelve, Seventeen, and Twenty-One 10 These affirmative defenses are, respectively, “intentional conduct or comparative 11 fault,” “capacity,” “standing,” “good faith,” “immunity,” “qualified immunity,” 12 “consent,” and the “in loco parentis doctrine.” (Answer at 9-11.) These affirmative 13 defenses are supported by factual allegations in the complaint and answer that are 14 sufficient to provide Mr. Mills fair notice. See, e.g., Mag Instrument, Inc. v. JS Prods, 15 Inc., 595 F. Supp. 2d 1102, 1108 (C.D. Cal. 2008) (“With respect to some defenses, 16 ‘merely pleading the name of the affirmative defense . . . may be sufficient.’” (quoting 17 Woodfield v. Bowman, 193 F.3d 354, 361 (5th Cir. 1999)). For example, with respect to 18 the immunity and qualified immunity defenses, there is no question based on the parties’ 19 pleadings that Mr. Zeichner is a public school teacher who was acting in his capacity as a 20 teacher when engaging in the conduct complained of. (See generally Compl. (Dkt. 21 # 2-1); Answer.) Mr. Zeichner’s immunity and qualified immunity defenses place Mr. 22 ORDER - 6 Case 2:23-cv-01130-JLR Document 16 Filed 09/20/23 Page 7 of 7 1 Mills on notice that Mr. Zeichner intends to argue he is immune from civil liability based 2 on the federal common law doctrine of qualified immunity, RCW 4.24.470, and his status 3 as a public school teacher. (See Resp. at 11-12.) And with respect to consent, for 4 example, the complaint makes clear that Mr. Mills’s wife permitted their daughter to 5 participate in the Euro Challenge. (See Compl. ¶ 11.) The court concludes these 6 defenses and the factual allegations in the pleadings provide enough information that Mr. 7 Mills is not subject to unfair surprise. For these reasons, the court DENIES Mr. Mills’s 8 motion to strike affirmative defenses three, five through seven, eleven, twelve, seventeen, 9 and twenty-one. 10 11 IV. CONCLUSION For the foregoing reasons, the court GRANTS in part and DENIES in part Mr. 12 Mills’s motion to strike affirmative defenses (Dkt. # 10) and GRANTS Mr. Zeichner’s 13 responsive motion to voluntarily withdraw affirmative defenses (Dkt. # 14). 14 Dated this 20th day of September, 2023. 15 A JAMES L. ROBART United States District Judge 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 ORDER - 7
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