Nicholson v. Biomet, Inc.

363 F. Supp. 3d 931
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Iowa
DecidedJanuary 28, 2019
DocketNo. 18-cv-3057-CJW-KEM
StatusPublished

This text of 363 F. Supp. 3d 931 (Nicholson v. Biomet, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nicholson v. Biomet, Inc., 363 F. Supp. 3d 931 (N.D. Iowa 2019).

Opinion

C.J. Williams, United States District Judge

This matter is before the Court on Lori Nicholson and Willis William Nicholson's ("plaintiffs") Motion to Strike Certain Affirmative Defenses. (Docs. 13-14). Defendants, together, filed their resistance (Doc. 243), and defendants subsequently supplemented their resistance (Doc. 244). The Court considers this motion fully ripe. For the following reasons, plaintiffs' motion is granted in part; denied in part ; and denied as moot as to affirmative defenses two, three, seventeen, twenty-five, thirty-nine, forty-two, as to affirmative defense seven to the extent the affirmative defense relies upon Section 19 of the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability , and as to affirmative defense eighteen as the affirmative defense relates to informed consent, release, and waiver. To the extent defendants have moved for leave to amend their thirty-fourth and thirty-eighth affirmative defenses, such motion is denied .

I. BACKGROUND

This case is one of a series of products liability cases, some of which the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation assigned to the Northern District of Indiana for consolidated and coordinated pretrial proceedings. (Doc. 215, at 1). Pursuant to an order entered by the Northern District of Indiana, plaintiffs filed their complaint in that court, but pled that venue was proper in the Northern District of Iowa. (Id. , at 2; Doc. 1, at 3). The Court will not presently address whether venue in this Court is proper beyond noting that defendants have *935pled as an affirmative defense that "venue is improper."1 (Doc. 8, at 55).

In sum, plaintiffs brought this action on a products liability theory, arguing that an artificial hip joint allegedly manufactured and marketed by defendants was defective, and that the allegedly defective hip joint was implanted into plaintiff Lori Nicholson. (Doc. 1). As a result of the joint's alleged defects, plaintiffs claim that plaintiff Lori Nicholson had to undergo painful and risky corrective surgery and that plaintiffs suffered damages as a result of the defects. (Id. ). Defendants responded to plaintiffs' complaint with forty-two affirmative defenses, twenty-three of which plaintiffs seek to have stricken. (Docs. 8, at 49-57; 13, at 1-4). Of those twenty-three affirmative defenses, defendants have agreed to withdraw five in full and two in part.2 (Doc. 243, at 24). The eighteen affirmative defenses that remain at issue are as follows: one, seven (in part), eight, nine, fifteen, eighteen (in part), nineteen, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, thirty-two, thirty-four, thirty-six, thirty-seven, and thirty-eight.

II. APPLICABLE LAW

Plaintiffs bring their motion under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(f), which permits a court to "strike from a pleading an insufficient defense ...." Rule 8(c) states that "a party must affirmatively state any ... affirmative defense." "The [Federal Rules of Civil Procedure] do not require a party to plead every step of legal reasoning that may be raised in support of [an] affirmative defense; they only require a defendant to state in short and plain terms its defenses to a plaintiff's claims."3 U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Comm'n v. U.S. Bank, N.A. , No. 13-CV-2041-LRR, 2014 WL 294219, at *9 (N.D. Iowa Jan. 27, 2014) (quoting Wisland v. Admiral Beverage Corp. , 119 F.3d 733, 737 (8th Cir. 1997) ).

The requirement that an affirmative defense be pled in short and plain terms is intended to give the opposing party notice of the affirmative defense and an opportunity to refute the defense. Blonder-Tongue Labs., Inc. v. Univ. of Ill. Found. , 402 U.S. 313, 350, 91 S.Ct. 1434, 28 L.Ed.2d 788 (1971) ; see also *936First Union Nat'l Bank v. Pictet Overseas Tr. Corp. , 477 F.3d 616, 622 (8th Cir. 2007) ("The Supreme Court has indicated that the Rule 8(c) pleading requirement is intended to give the opposing party both notice of the affirmative defense and an opportunity to rebut it." (citations omitted) ). The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has, therefore, liberally interpreted affirmative defenses in determining whether such defenses have been adequately pled and has held that "when an affirmative defense is raised in the trial court in a manner that does not result in unfair surprise, technical failure to comply with Rule 8(c) is not fatal." Pictet , 477 F.3d at 622 (alterations, citations, and internal quotation marks omitted). "Nowhere in Rule 8(c) is there a requirement for the party pleading an affirmative defense to show that the pleader is entitled to relief, or, in the case of a defendant, that the affirmative defense, if the facts articulated were true, absolves the pleader of liability." U.S. Bank , 2014 WL 294219, at *10 (alteration and internal quotation marks omitted).

When striking a pleading under Rule 12(f), a district court enjoys broad discretion. Stanbury Law Firm v. IRS , 221 F.3d 1059, 1063 (8th Cir. 2000) (citations omitted). "Despite this broad discretion[,] however, striking a party's pleadings is an extreme measure, and, as a result, ... motions to strike under [ Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(f) ] are viewed with disfavor and are infrequently granted." Id. (alteration, citations, and internal quotation marks omitted).

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Bluebook (online)
363 F. Supp. 3d 931, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nicholson-v-biomet-inc-iand-2019.