Lassiter v. City of Philadelphia

Issue: (1) Whether, in an ordinary civil case, Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 16 gives a District Court carte blanche to raise, sua sponte, the affirmative defense of statute of limitations, where the defense was apparent on the face of the plaintiff’s complaint but the defendants had failed to plead it in their Answer and admitted to the Court that they had “missed it”; and (2) whether Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(c)(1), and the principle of party presentation that it embodies, preclude a District Court in an ordinary civil case from raising, sua sponte, a forfeited affirmative defense and granting the defendant leave to file an Amended Answer.