Hodas v. Sherburne

[Not for Publication] United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit No. 96-2189 MARTIN HODAS, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. SHERBURNE, POWERS & NEEDHAM, P.C., ET AL., Defendants, Appellees. APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS [Hon. George A. O'Toole, Jr., U.S. District Judge] Before Torruella, Chief Judge, Cyr, Senior Circuit Judge, and Stahl, Circuit Judge. Matthew Cobb on brief for appellant. Gael Mahoney, Michael D. Weisman, Amy B. Rifkind, and Hill & Barlow on brief for appellees. April 24, 1997 Per curiam. Having reviewed the parties' briefs Per curiam. and the appellate record for this case, we affirm the judgment of the district court for substantially the same reasons stated in the August 16, 1996 memorandum and order dismissing the action on statute-of-limitations grounds. We add only the following. We find no merit to plaintiff's argument that the district court improperly considered matters outside the pleadings without converting defendants' motion to dismiss into one for summary judgment. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). Plaintiff referenced but failed to submit with his complaint a pertinent document that defendants introduced in support of their 12(b)(6) motion. The court properly considered the document as part of the pleadings for the purposes of the motion to dismiss. See Romani v. Shearson Lehman Hutton, 929 F.2d 875, 879 n.3 (1st Cir. 1991); 5 Charles A. Wright & Arthur R. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure 1327 at 762-63 (2d ed. 1990); see also Venture Assocs. Corp. v. Zenith Data Sys. Corp., 987 F.2d 429, 431 (7th Cir. 1993)("Documents that a defendant attaches to a motion to dismiss are considered part of the pleadings if they are referred to in the plaintiff's complaint and are central to her claim."). Affirmed. Costs to appellees. Affirmed. Costs to appellees. -2- 2