Judge Lynn Strikes Negative Affirmative Defenses

On August 7, 2013, Judge Lynn issued an Order (available here) in Insuremax v. Shanze Enterprises. The Order contains a good discussion of supplemental jurisdiction, and is worth a read in its entirety. One notable aspect is that Judge Lynn granted the plaintiffs’ motion to strike a number of the defendant’s affirmative defenses which were merely “negative defenses” that negate an element of plaintiffs’ prima facie case, not “affirmative defenses” that offer a justification for the defendant’s actions.