Rule 9.Pleading Special Matters

Most of Rule 9 exists to tell a pleader when general allegations are enough and when more detail is required. A party does not need to plead its own capacity to sue or be sued, its authority to sue in a representative role, or the legal existence of an organization named as a party — those are presumed unless an opponent raises them through a specific denial that states the supporting facts, which the rule recognizes are often known only to that opponent. Fraud or mistake is treated the opposite way: Rule 9(b) requires pleading the circumstances constituting fraud or mistake with particularity, though a person's state of mind — malice, intent, knowledge — can still be alleged generally, since a party rarely has direct proof of what was in someone else's head.

Conditions precedent get a similar split: alleging that all conditions precedent have occurred or been performed can be done generally, but denying that a condition occurred or was performed must be done with particularity, so the other side knows exactly which condition is in dispute. Pleading an official document or act, a judgment, or a foreign law is easy under Rule 9(d) and (e) — it suffices to say the document was legally issued, the act legally done, or to identify a law or judgment by title and date, without having to establish the underlying jurisdiction or authority behind it.

The last three subdivisions round out the rule. Time and place allegations matter when a court tests whether a pleading is sufficient. Special damages must be specifically stated rather than left to be inferred. And if a party does not yet know another party's real name, Rule 9(h) allows pleading against that person under any placeholder name, with the pleading amended once the true name comes to light.