Rule 9.Pleading special matters

Rule 9(a) flips the usual expectation on capacity: a party doesn't need to allege the capacity of a party to sue or be sued, or the authority to sue or be sued in a representative capacity, or the legal existence of an organized association made a party. If a party wants to raise a challenge on any of those points, it must do so by a specific negative averment, supported by affidavit when Rule 8(dd) requires one, and that averment has to include the supporting particulars within the pleader's own knowledge.

Rule 9(b) draws a line that runs through a lot of pleading practice: the circumstances constituting fraud, negligence, or mistake -- the details of what happened -- must be stated with particularity, while malice, intent, knowledge, and other conditions of a person's mind can be averred generally. Rule 9(c) relaxes things for conditions precedent -- a party can generally aver that all conditions precedent have been performed or occurred, though a denial of that averment has to be specific and particular.

Rules 9(d) and (e) do similar work for official acts and judgments. Pleading an official document or act only requires averring that it was issued or done in compliance with law. Pleading a judgment or decision of a court, tribunal, board, or officer -- domestic or foreign -- only requires averring the judgment or decision itself, without setting out facts showing the decision-maker had jurisdiction to render it. Rule 9(f) treats averments of time and place as material, on the same footing as any other averment, for testing whether a pleading is sufficient.

Rule 9(g) requires a pleading seeking unliquidated money damages to demand damages generally, without specifying an amount -- except that items of special damage must be specifically stated. If another party serves a written request, the party who filed the pleading must serve, within 10 days, a written statement of the amount of damages claimed, though that statement isn't filed except by court order.