We're blogging today because of an annoyance – another of these nuisance motions filed by plaintiffs that should be skirting the border of Rule 11, but unfortunately isn't. Our particular gripe is a motion to strike a defendant's pleaded defenses (please don't call them "affirmative" defenses unless they really are) because they supposedly don't meet the pleading requirements of Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544 (2007), and Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662 (2009) (collectively "TwIqbal"). These motions are meritless for the simple reason that defenses, unlike pleading of affirmative claims, are not governed by Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a) – the rule giving rise to TwIqbal – but rather by Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(c). Rule 8(a), governing "claim[s] for relief," requires "a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief." Rule 8(c), governing "affirmative defenses," requires only that the pleader "must affirmatively state any avoidance or affirmative defense," with no requirement of any "showing." Thus, the proper response should be that "[c]ourt[s] do[] not hold defenses to the strictures of Twombly and Plaintiffs' arguments based upon Twombly and its progeny are roundly rejected." Hamblen v. Davol, Inc., 2018 WL 1493251, at *3 (M.D. Fla. March 27, 2018).

So there.

The text of the rule should end the matter, but as with removal before service, plaintiffs advance various extra-textual dodges. Those excuses amount to little more than, "because we have to obey TwIqbal, defendants should, too," whatever the relevant rules actually say. That "double standard" argument deserves a barnyard expletive, but, instead it gets this blogpost – and this quote: "There is nothing dumber than a motion to strike boilerplate affirmative defenses; it wastes the client's money and the court's time." Raymond Weil, S.A. v. Theron, 585 F. Supp.2d 473, 489-90 (S.D.N.Y. 2008).

We start with Twombly:

[A] plaintiff's obligation to provide the grounds of his entitlement to relief requires more than labels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do. Factual allegations must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level.

550 U.S. at 555 (lots of citations and quotation marks omitted) (emphasis added). Likewise in Iqbal, the Court made clear that all Rule 8(a) claims must adhere to the same pleading standard:

Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a)(2), a pleading must contain a "short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief. . . ." [Rule 8(a)] demands more than an unadorned, the-defendant-unlawfully-harmed-me accusation. A pleading that offers labels and conclusions or a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do. Nor does a complaint suffice if it tenders naked assertions" devoid of further factual enhancement. To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face. A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.

Id. at 677-78 (again with lots of citations and quotation marks omitted) (emphasis added).

None of that has ever been true for the defenses and avoidances that Rule 8(c) simply requires be "affirmatively stated." "The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure do not require a heightened pleading standard for a . . . defense." Montgomery v. Wyeth, 580 F.3d 455, 468 (6th Cir. 2009). "When [TwIqbal] restated the requirements of Fed. R. Civ.P. 8, the Justices did not revise the allocation of burdens concerning affirmative defenses; neither [decision] mentions affirmative defenses." Davis v. Indiana State Police, 541 F.3d 760, 763-64 (7th Cir. 2008). "[A]n affirmative defense 'need not be articulated with any rigorous degree of specificity, and is sufficiently raised for purposes of [Rule 8] by its bare assertion.'" In re Frescati Shipping Co., 886 F.3d 291, 313 (3d Cir. 2018) (quoting Moody v. Atlantic City Board of Education, 870 F.3d 206, 218 (3d Cir. 2017)).

[Plaintiff] simply argues that the affirmative defense pleadings were defective simply because they were "bare one-liners." Because the applicable test does not require the district court to count the lines of text that an invoked defense uses and because the defendant's pleading gave [plaintiff] notice of the defense, the district court did not err in permitting the defendants to assert their affirmative defenses in their answer.

Lawrence v. Chabot, 182 F. Appx. 442, 457 (6th Cir. 2006). In Twombly "the Justices did not revise the allocation of burdens concerning affirmative defenses" nor did Twombly "mention[] affirmative defenses in general." Davis v. Indiana State Police, 541 F.3d 760, 763-64 (7th Cir. 2009); accord Brownmark Films, LLC v. Comedy Partners, 682 F.3d 687, 691 (7th Cir.2012) (declining to apply TwIqbal "heightened pleading standards" to affirmative defenses). "[T]he 'fair notice' required by the pleading standards only requires describing the defense in 'general terms.'" Kohler v. Flava Enterprises, Inc., 779 F.3d 1016, 1019 (9th Cir. 2015). Given the express language of Rule 8, arguments that, because plaintiffs' "claims" are subject to TwIqbal, defendants' defenses should be, too, are paradigms of false equivalence.

Thus, case after case has held that TwIqbal does not apply to affirmative defenses. One particularly detailed discussion of the reasons why occurred in this product liability case involving a prescription drug:

Courts offer at least three justifications for applying a less stringent standard to affirmative defenses. First, these courts maintain that the Twombly standard is rooted in Rule 8(a)'s "showing" requirement. As proof, they cite various parts of the Twombly opinion, including one particularly telling passage where the United States Supreme Court explains that "Rule 8(a)(2) still requires a 'showing,' rather than a blanket assertion, of entitlement to relief." Juxtaposing the "showing" language in Rule 8(a) with the "stating" language in Rules 8(b) and (c), these same courts then point out the difference between requiring the statement of something and requiring the showing of something. . . .

Second, relying on well-settled principles of statutory construction, courts applying a lower pleading standard to affirmative defenses maintain that if the drafters of Rule 8 had intended for the "showing" requirement to apply to the pleading of defenses, they knew how to say it, as demonstrated by Rule 8(a), and would have written that requirement into Rules 8(b) and (c). The drafters of Rules 8(b) and (c) having not done so, these courts reason, the judiciary is not free to engraft the "showing" requirement onto these rules itself. Thus, these courts conclude, where, as with Rule 8, the language of the provision being construed is clear, the analysis ends with the language, and the court may not take into account policy considerations.

Lastly . . ., a lower pleading standard is consistent with binding case law. While the Eleventh Circuit has addressed affirmative defenses, it has not extended the pleading requirements of Rule 8(a) beyond claims. Rather, the appeals court has stressed that notice is the main purpose of Rule 8(c). . . .

Based on these rationales, this Court joins the growing number of courts in this circuit and others in finding that a lower pleading standard applies to affirmative defenses. Such an approach is faithful both to the letter and the spirit of Rules 8(b) and (c), as revealed through the plain language of Rule 8 and Eleventh Circuit precedent.

Tsavaris v. Pfizer, Inc., 310 F.R.D. 678, 681-82 (S.D. Fla. 2015) (once again omitting lots of quotations and citations). Similarly, the court in Tardif v. City of New York, 302 F.R.D. 31 (S.D.N.Y. 2014), summarized the numerous reasons why TwIqbal does not apply to defenses:

(1) textual differences between Rule 8(a), which requires that a plaintiff asserting a claim show entitlement to relief, and Rule 8(c), which requires only that the defendant state any defenses;

(2) a diminished concern that plaintiffs receive notice in light of their ability to obtain more information during discovery;

(3) the absence of a concern that the defense is "unlocking the doors of discovery";

(4) the limited discovery costs, in relation to the costs imposed on a defendant, since it is unlikely that either side will pursue discovery on frivolous defenses;

(5) the unfairness of holding the defendant to the same pleading standard as the plaintiff, when the defendant has only a limited time to respond after service of the complaint while plaintiff has until the expiration of the statute of limitations;

(6) the low likelihood that motions to strike affirmative defenses would expedite the litigation, given that leave to amend is routinely granted;

(7) the risk that a defendant will waive a defense at trial by failing to plead it at the early stage of the litigation;

(8) the lack of detail in Form 30, which demonstrates the appropriate pleading of an affirmative defense; and

(9) the fact that a heightened pleading requirement would produce more motions to strike, which are disfavored.

Id. at 33-34 (citations and quotation marks omitted). Accord, e.g.:

First Circuit

Vazquez-Robles v. CommoLoco, Inc., 186 F. Supp.3d 138, 149 (D.P.R. 2016) ("the Court concludes that [TwIqbal] do not apply to affirmative defenses"); Hansen v. Rhode Island's Only 24 Hour Truck & Auto Plaza, Inc., 287 F.R.D. 119, 123 (D. Mass. 2012) ("the Court declines to apply the heightened pleading standard to defendants' affirmative defense").

Second Circuit

Leviton Manufacturing Co. v. Pass & Seymour, Inc., 264 F. Supp.3d 421, 427 (E.D.N.Y. 2017) ("The overwhelming majority view, to which I subscribe, is that the concept of plausibility has no application to affirmative defenses."); Sibley v. Choice Hotels International, Inc., 304 F.R.D. 125, 133 (E.D.N.Y. 2015) ("a defendant must only 'affirmatively state' an affirmative defense pursuant to Rule 8(c) and need not meet the [TwIqbal] plausibility standard."); Serby v. First Alert, Inc., 934 F. Supp.2d 506, 516 (E.D.N.Y. 2013) ("There is no requirement under Rule 8(c) that a defendant plead any facts at all.").

Third Circuit

Schmidt v. Ford Motor Co., 198 F. Supp.3d 511, 526 n.7 (E.D. Pa. 2016) (following Tyco Fire); Gross v. Weinstein, Weinburg & Fox, LLC, 123 F. Supp.3d 575, 582-83 (D. Del. 2015) (declining to apply the plausibility standard found in TwIqbal to affirmative defenses); Mifflinburg Telegraph, Inc. v. Criswell, 80 F. Supp.3d 566, 574 (M.D. Pa. 2015) ("'stating' an affirmative defense provides 'fair notice' without specific factual allegations for each element of the defense"); Newborn Brothers Co. v. Albion Engineering Co., 299 F.R.D. 90, 97 (D.N.J. 2014) ("This Court joins those courts . . . which have held that the heightened [TwIqbal] standard is not applicable to the pleading of affirmative defenses under Rule 8(c)"); Senju Pharmaceutical Co. v. Apotex, Inc., 921 F. Supp.2d 297, 303 (D. Del. 2013) ("Due to the differences between Rules 8(a) and 8(c) in text and purpose, [TwIqbal] do not apply to affirmative defenses, which need not be plausible to survive. An affirmative defense must merely provide fair notice of the issue involved."); XpertUniverse, Inc. v. Cisco Systems, Inc., 868 F. Supp.2d 376, 383 n.3 (D. Del. 2012) ("the majority of the District Courts in the Third Circuit have rejected the application of [TwIqbal] to defensive pleadings"; "[plaintiff] has failed to convince this Court that [TwIqbal] apply to . . . defensive pleadings"); Tyco Fire Products LP v. Victaulic Co., 777 F. Supp.2d 893, 900-01 (E.D. Pa. 2011) ("An affirmative defense need not be plausible to survive; it must merely provide fair notice of the issue involved").

Fourth Circuit

Baron v. Directv, LLC, 233 F. Supp.3d 441, 444 (D. Md. 2017) ("a defendant's affirmative defenses need not be pleaded according to the [TwIqbal] standard"); LBCMT 2007-C3 Urbana Pike, LLC v. Sheppard, 302 F.R.D. 385, 387 (D. Md. 2014) ("A plaintiff's complaint invokes the jurisdiction of the court and seeks affirmative relief. An affirmative defense does neither; consequently, it is reasonable to interpret the wording of Rule 8(b) and (c), which govern defenses and affirmative defenses, differently from the interpretation given by the Supreme Court to the distinctive wording of Rule 8(a) applicable to claims for relief."); Lockheed Martin Corp. v. United States, 973 F. Supp.2d 591, 593-95 (D. Md. 2013) ("the Court declines to hold that [TwIqbal] apply to affirmative defenses"); Guessford v. Pennsylvania National Mutual Casualty Insurance Co., 918 F. Supp.2d 453, 468 (M.D.N.C. 2013) ("the Fourth Circuit has not directly addressed the implications [TwIqbal] on the pleading of affirmative defenses. As such, the Court will follow the language of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Fourth Circuit's present interpretation of that language, which requires only that a party 'affirmatively state any avoidance or affirmative defense' in order to provide fair notice to a plaintiff of the nature of the affirmative defense."); Odyssey Imaging, LLC v. Cardiology Assocs., LLC, 752 F. Supp.2d 721, 725-26 (W.D. Va. 2010) ("because of these [textual] differences, Rules 8(b) and 8(c) do not require a court to subject defenses pleaded by a defendant to the same stringent plausibility standards that [TwIqbal] demand of claims for relief under Rule 8(a).").

Fifth Circuit

Blount v. Johnson Controls, Inc., ___ F.R.D. ___, 2018 WL 4224465, at *2-3 (S.D. Miss. Sept. 5, 2018) ("The text of Rules 8(a), (b), and (c) reflects clear differences with respect to the purposes of complaints and responsive pleadings and the showings they require. Those differences distinguish Twombly."); United States ex rel. Parikh v. Citizens Medical Center, 302 F.R.D. 416, 418-19 (S.D. Tex. 2014) ("This Court is persuaded that the traditional fair notice standard, without the [TwIqbal] gloss, applies to an affirmative defense."); Deniece Design, LLC v. Braun, 953 F. Supp.2d 765, 776 (S.D. Tex. 2013) ("[TwIqbal] do not apply to the pleading of" various affirmative defenses); EEOC v. Rock-Tenn Services Co., 901 F. Supp.2d 810, 832 (N.D. Tex. 2012) (declining to apply the plausibility standard found in TwIqbal to affirmative defenses); SEC v. Cuban, 798 F. Supp.2d 783, 795 n.13 (N.D. Tex. 2011) ("this court has declined so far to apply the plausibility standard to affirmative defenses").

Sixth Circuit

Martin v. Trott Law, P.C., 265 F. Supp.3d 731, 737 (E.D. Mich. 2017) (TwIqbal "generally do not apply to pleading affirmative defenses"); Pidcock v. Schwab, 569 B.R. 463, 480 (N.D. Ohio 2017) ("The majority of courts considering this issue . . . follow[] the majority approach in finding that the [TwIqbal] pleading requirements do not apply to affirmative defenses.").

Seventh Circuit

Ayotte v. Boeing Co., 316 F. Supp.3d 1066, 1076 (N.D. Ill. 2018) ("an affirmative defense need not be plausible to survive, and must merely provide fair notice of the issue involved"); Hancock v. Illinois Central Sweeping LLC, 73 F. Supp.3d 932, 942 (N.D. Ill. 2014) ("An affirmative defense may be pleaded in general terms and will be held to be sufficient as long as it gives the plaintiff fair notice of the nature of the defense.").

Eighth Circuit

Wilkinson v. High Plains Inc., 297 F. Supp.3d 988, 993 (D.N.D. 2018) ("an affirmative defense . . . need not be articulated with any rigorous degree of specificity, and is sufficiently raised for purposes of Rule 8 by its bare assertion"); Summers Manufacturing Co. v. Tri-Cty. AG, LLC, 300 F. Supp.3d 1025, 1044 (S.D. Iowa 2017) ("the Court agrees with the analysis of fellow district courts . . . and finds the plausibility standard inapplicable to affirmative defenses"); Infogroup, Inc. v. DatabaseLLC, 95 F. Supp.3d 1170, 1193 (D. Neb. 2015) ("while defenses must be asserted in a responsive pleading, they need not be articulated with any rigorous degree of specificity, and may be sufficiently raised for purposes of Rule 8 by their bare assertion"); FDIC v. Dosland, 298 F.R.D. 388, 393-94 (N.D. Iowa 2013) ("I decline the [plaintiff's] invitation to require the pleading of affirmative defenses to the [TwIqbal] 'plausibility' pleading standard"); Strauss v. Centennial Precious Metals, Inc., 291 F.R.D. 338, 343 (D. Neb. 2013) ("[TwIqbal] pleading standard [is] inapplicable to those affirmative defenses"); Wells Fargo & Co. v. United States, 750 F. Supp.2d 1049, 1051 (D. Minn. 2010) ("[TwIqbal] do not apply to the pleading of affirmative defenses.").

Ninth Circuit

Rosen v. Masterpiece Marketing Group, LLC, 222 F. Supp.3d 793, 802 (C.D. Cal. 2016) ("Requiring defendants to satisfy the [TwIqbal] pleading standard within twenty-one days of being served with a complaint neither accords with the language of Rules 8(c) and 12(f), nor appears just as a matter of policy."); Gomez v. J. Jacobo Farm Labor Contractor, Inc., 188 F. Supp.3d 986, 991-92 (E.D. Cal. 2016) ("This Court will not apply [TwIqbal] to determining the sufficiency of affirmative defenses."); ESCO Corp. v. Cashman Equipment Co., 158 F. Supp.3d 1051, 1058 (D. Nev. 2016) ("The standard for properly pleading an affirmative defense does not rise to the same level of pleading a cause of action."); Craten v. Foster Poultry Farms, Inc., 2016 WL 3457899, at *2 (D. Ariz. June 24, 2016) ("the text of Rule 8(c)(1) and fairness considerations compel the conclusion that [TwIqbal] do not govern pleading affirmative defenses"); Rockwell Automation, Inc. v. Beckhoff Automation, LLC, 23 F. Supp.3d 1236, 1242 (D. Nev. 2014) ("because of the difference in language between Rules 8(a) and 8(c), the Court will leave it to the appellate courts to institute something like a plausibility standard for Rule 8(c)"); Weintraub v. Law Office of Patenaude & Felix, A.P.C., 299 F.R.D. 661, 665 (S.D. Cal. 2014) ("Stating an affirmative defense under Rule 8(c), however, does not require the pleader to 'show' entitlement to its defense."); Polk v. Legal Recovery Law Offices, 291 F.R.D. 485, 490 (S.D. Cal. 2013) ("Applying the same standard of pleading to claims and affirmative defenses, despite this clear distinction in the rules' language, would run counter to the Supreme Court's warning in Twombly that legislative action, not 'judicial interpretation,' is necessary to 'broaden the scope' of specific federal pleading standards.); Kohler v. Staples the Office Superstore, LLC, 291 F.R.D. 464, 468 (S.D. Cal. 2013) ("this Court declines to extend the [TwIqbal] pleading standards to affirmative defenses"); Roe v. City of San Diego, 289 F.R.D. 604, 609 (S.D. Cal. 2013) ("the Supreme Court's analysis in [TwIqbal] is limited to pleadings under [Rule] 8(a)(2)"); Kohler v. Islands Restaurants, LP, 280 F.R.D. 560, 566 (S.D. Cal. 2012) ("this Court declines to extend the [TwIqbal] pleading standards to affirmative defenses").

Tenth Circuit

Fuller v. Finley Resources, Inc., 176 F. Supp.3d 1263, 1266 (D.N.M. 2016) ("other cases from this District have declined to extend the heightened pleading standard established in [TwIqbal] to affirmative defenses"); Federal National Mortgage Ass'n v. Milasinovich, 161 F. Supp.3d 981, 994-95 (D.N.M. 2016) (following Lane); Dorato v. Smith, 163 F. Supp.3d 837, 882 (D.N.M. 2015) (following Falley); Sharp v. CGG Land (U.S.) Inc., 141 F. Supp.3d 1169, 1176 (N.D. Okla. 2015) ("recitation of the specific affirmative defenses that may be applicable is sufficient to serve this [notice] purpose"), aff'd on other grounds, 840 F.3d 1211 (10th Cir. 2016); Wells v. Hi Country Auto Group, 982 F. Supp.2d 1261, 1264 (D.N.M. 2013) ("the [TwIqbal] pleading standard does not apply to affirmative defenses"); Falley v. Friends University, 787 F. Supp.2d 1255, 1259 (D. Kan. 2011) ("Applying the Twombly standard, therefore, would likely result in increased motions practice with little practical impact on the case's forward progression."); Lane v. Page, 272 F.R.D. 581, 591 (D.N.M. 2011) ("[n]either the text of the rules nor the Supreme Court's decisions in [TwIqbal] require the Court to extend the pleading standard from those cases to affirmative defenses").

Eleventh Circuit

Luxottica Group, S.p.A. v. Airport Mini Mall, LLC, 186 F. Supp.3d 1370, 1374 n.1 (N.D. Ga. 2016) ("this Court has declined to extend the pleading requirements of Twombly to affirmative defenses"); Tomason v. Stanley, 297 F.R.D. 541, 544-45 (S.D. Ga. 2014) ("This Court therefore declines to import Twombly's heightened pleading standard into the Rule 8(c) arena."); Weekes-Walker v. Macon County Greyhound Park, Inc., 877 F. Supp.2d 1192, 1211-12 (M.D. Ala. 2012) ("the plausibility pleading standards of [TwIqbal] do not apply to affirmative defenses"); EEOC v. Joe Ryan Enterprises, Inc., 281 F.R.D. 660, 662-64 (M.D. Ala. 2012) ("[TwIqbal] do not apply to the pleading of affirmative defenses"); Jackson v. City of Centreville, 269 F.R.D. 661, 662-63 (N.D. Ala. 2010) ("Neither Twombly nor Iqbal address Rules 8(b)(1)(A) and 8(c) which pertain to affirmative defenses."; "this Court does not agree with the magistrate that heightened pleading standards apply to affirmative defenses") (reversing Magistrate); Bartronics, Inc. v. Power-One, Inc., 245 F.R.D. 532, 537 n.5 (S.D. Ala. 2007) ("Nothing in [Twombly] would appear to require more detailed pleading of affirmative defenses").

District of Columbia Circuit

Moore v. United States, 318 F. Supp.3d 188, 193 (D.D.C. 2018) ("Two judges in this district have considered the issue and found that [TwIqbal] do not apply to affirmative defenses. This Court agrees."); Paleteria La Michoacana v. Productos Lacteos, 905 F. Supp.2d 189, 190-93 (D.D.C. 2012) ("Imposing the plausibility requirement to affirmative defenses would be a sea change for this court's practitioners; absent any compelling need for such a change, the court will leave Rule 8(c) undisturbed.").

As for these quotes, we note that, as with the previous quotations, a lot of our quotes in the string-cite opinions omit internal quotes and citations.

* * * *

Moreover, these cases (with one exception) are only the opinions on TwIqbal and defenses that have found their way into F. Supp. and F.R.D. There are probably ten times as many unpublished decisions – which overwhelm even our appetite for research. The basic search we used turned up 267 published cases (not all of which, of course, were relevant), but also 2,962 unpublished cases.

To take one example (and the only time we're researching like this), we didn't find a single published no-TwIqbal decision from Missouri (although there is Fleishour v. Stewart Title Guaranty Co., 640 F. Supp.2d 1088, 1090 (E.D. Mo. 2009) ("the pleading requirements under the Federal Rules simply do not require a statement of the facts necessary to support the defense"), which is hard to find because it doesn't actually cite TwIqbal). We're trying to change this, but in any event, there are a raft of unpublished Missouri opinions to this effect: See Arbogast v. Healthcare Revenue Recovery Group, 2018 WL 3643416, at *3 (E.D. Mo. Aug. 1, 2018) ("the Court finds that the pleading standards articulated in [TwIqbal] do not apply to affirmative defenses"); Westmoreland v. Medtronic, Inc., 2018 WL 3617315, at *2 (E.D. Mo. May 14, 2018) ("Courts in this District have rejected, with respect to affirmative defenses, the 'plausibility' standard"); Swinter Group, Inc. v. Nationwide Truckers' Insurance Agency, 2018 WL 306024, at *4-5 (E.D. Mo. Jan. 5, 2018) ("This Court is in agreement with those courts that have found that the pleading standards articulated in [TwIqbal] do not apply to affirmative defenses"); Construction Industry Laborers, Pension Fund v. Wellington Concrete, LLC, 2016 WL 1275605, at *3 (E.D. Mo. March 31, 2016) ("affirmative defenses and avoidances are not subject to the same pleading standards as claims for relief"); FTC v. BF Labs Inc., 2015 WL 12806580, at *2 (W.D. Mo. Aug. 28, 2015) ("find[ing] that [TwIqbal] do not apply to affirmative defenses"); Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Moseley, 2015 WL 12834015, at *1 (W.D. Mo. May 26, 2015) ("the pleading requirements set forth in [TwIqbal] do not apply to affirmative defenses"); Florilli Transportation, LLC v. Western Express, Inc., 2015 WL 12838149, at *1 (W.D. Mo. Feb. 20, 2015) ("the pleading requirements articulated in Twombly do not apply to affirmative defenses"); Herbst v. Ressler & Assocs., Inc., 2014 WL 4205294, at *8 (E.D. Mo. Aug. 22, 2014) ("Under Rule 8, the pleader of an affirmative defense need only 'state' the defense, but need not 'show' anything") (quoting 2 Moore's Federal Practice §8.08[1] (3d ed. 2014)); Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's v. SSDD, LLC, 2013 WL 6801832, at *8 (E.D. Mo. Dec. 23, 2013) ("a more lenient standard applies to affirmative defenses"); CitiMortgage, Inc. v. Just Mortgages, Inc., 2013 WL 6538680, at *8 (E.D. Mo. Dec. 13, 2013) ("affirmative defenses are not required to be initially pled according to the plausibility standard"); Baustian v. Fifth Third Bank, 2013 WL 6243857, at *2 (E.D. Mo. Dec. 3, 2013) ("the plausibility standard does not apply to affirmative defenses"); Hayden v. United States, 2013 WL 5291755, at *3 (E.D. Mo. Sept. 19, 2013) ("affirmative defenses ought not be required to be initially pled according to the plausibility standard required of claims"); United States ex rel. Health Dimensions Rehabilitation, Inc. v. RehabCare Group, Inc., 2013 WL 2182343, at *1 (E.D. Mo. May 20, 2013) (TwIqbal inapplicable to defenses); Southard v. City of Oronogo, 2013 WL 352943, at *2 (W.D. Mo. Jan. 29, 2013 ("the heightened pleading requirements set forth in [TwIqbal] do not apply to affirmative defenses"); CitiMortgage, Inc. v. Draper & Kramer Mortgage Corp., 2012 WL 3984497, at *3 (E.D. Mo. Sept. 11, 2012) (same); Willis v. Quad Lakes Enterprises, L.L.C., 2011 WL 3957339, at *2 (W.D. Mo. Sept. 7, 2011) ("The more heightened pleading standard set forth in [TwIqbal], therefore, does not apply to the pleading requirements for affirmative defenses"); Fluid Control Products, Inc. v. Aeromotive, Inc., 2010 WL 427765, at *3 (E.D. Mo. Feb. 1, 2010) (TwIqbal inapplicable to defenses, but not citing TwIqbal).

As the Missouri example demonstrates, anybody opposing a TwIqbal attack on their Rule 8(c) defenses will want to flesh out our collection of reported cases with additional support from unpublished cases involving the relevant district or circuit. Fortunately, many of the published cases in our list also cite copiously to that unpublished precedent.

Finally, also of interest is a now-somewhat-dated law review article from 2013, William M. Janssen, "The Odd State of Twiqbal Plausibility in Pleading Affirmative Defenses," 70 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 1573 (2013), which – unlike us – collected decisions (through that date) on both sides of the issue. The article concluded:

[T]here is indeed today a national majority on the issue of Twiqbal's applicability to affirmative defenses, but it is decidedly in the direction of refusing to apply "plausibility" to such pleadings. If those opinions that sidestepped the issue are removed from the study, the resulting margin is more striking still − judges are rejecting Twiqbal for testing affirmative defenses by very nearly a two-to-one margin.

Id. at 1606. Judging from what we've found since then, we think the percentages from the "Odd State" article have only grown more lopsided against TwIqbal applying to defenses. See Justin Rand, "Tightening Twiqbal: Why Plausibility Must Be Confined to the Complaint," 9 Fed. Cts. L. Rev. 79, 88 (2016) ("Left without guidance on this consequential issue, the majority of district courts initially answered it affirmatively − Twiqbal plausibility pleading was applied to affirmative defenses. Yet, with the benefit of additional time, a growing majority of federal district courts has now declined to extend plausibility to affirmative defenses under Rules 8(b) and 8(c)") (footnotes omitted).

In sum, we don't like being harassed with bogus, make-work motions. Our readers probably don't either. With this post, we hope to pass out the ammunition so that defendants can beat back these plaintiff-side arguments once and for all, and do so without having constantly to re-invent the wheel.

This article is presented for informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal advice.