RULE 8                                                
                 GENERAL RULES OF PLEADING                                       
                                                                                 
    (a) Claims for Relief. A pleading which sets forth a claim for relief,       
whether an original claim, counterclaim, cross claim, or third party claim,      
shall contain (1) a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the      
pleader is entitled to relief and (2) a demand for judgment for the relief       
to which he deems himself entitled. Relief in the alternative or of several      
different types may be demanded.                                                 
    (b) Defenses; Form of Denials. A party shall state in short and plain        
terms his defenses to each claim asserted and shall admit or deny the            
averments upon which the adverse party relies. If he is without knowledge        
or information sufficient to form a belief as to the truth of an averment,       
he shall so state and this has the effect of a denial. Denials shall fairly      
meet the substance of the averments denied. When a pleader intends in good       
faith to deny only a part or a qualification of an averment, he shall            
specify so much of it as is true and material and shall deny only the            
remainder. Unless the pleader intends in good faith to controvert all the        
averments of the preceding pleading, he may make his denials as specific         
denials of designated averments or paragraphs, or he may generally deny all      
the averments except such designated averments or paragraphs as he               
expressly admits; but, when he does so intend to controvert all its              
averments, he may do so by general denial subject to the obligations set         
forth in rule 11.                                                                
    (c) Affirmative Defenses. In pleading to a preceding pleading, a party       
shall set forth affirmatively accord and satisfaction, arbitration and           
award, assumption of risk, contributory negligence, discharge in                 
bankruptcy, duress, estoppel, failure of consideration, fault of a               
nonparty, fraud, illegality, injury by fellow servant, laches, license,          
payment, release, res judicata, statute of frauds, statute of limitation,        
waiver, and any other matter constituting an avoidance or affirmative            
defense. When a party has mistakenly designated a defense as a counterclaim      
or a counterclaim as a defense, the court on terms, if justice so requires,      
shall treat the pleading as if there had been a proper designation.              
    (d) Effect of Failure To Deny. Averments in a pleading to which a            
responsive pleading is required, other than those as to the amount of            
damage, are admitted when not denied in the responsive pleading. Averments       
in a pleading to which no responsive pleading is required or permitted           
shall be taken as denied or avoided.                                             
    (e) Pleading To Be Concise and Direct; Consistency.                          
    (1) Each averment of a pleading shall be simple, concise, and direct.        
No technical forms of pleadings or motions are required.                         
    (2) A party may set forth two or more statements of a claim or defense       
alternately or hypothetically, either in one count or defense or in              
separate counts or defenses. When two or more statements are made in the         
alternative and one of them if made independently would be sufficient, the       
pleading is not made insufficient by the insufficiency of one or more of         
the alternative statements. A party may also state as many separate claims       
or defenses as he has regardless of consistency and whether based on legal       
or on equitable grounds or on both. All statements shall be made subject to      
the obligations set forth in rule 11.                                            
    (f) Construction of Pleadings. All pleadings shall be so construed as        
to do substantial justice. The adoption of this rule shall not be                
considered an adoption or approval of the forms of pleading in the Appendix      
of Forms approved in rule 84, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.