Simmons v. State of Rhode Island

In this civil action involving multiple parties, the plaintiffs have appealed from a decision of a Superior Court justice granting a Super. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) motion of the State of Rhode Island, one of the two defendants, to dismiss the plaintiffs’ complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.

Following the hearing before us on briefs and oral arguments, a closer examination of the records in the case than had theretofore been made disclosed certain procedural difficulties. The immediate jurisdictional defect was that the appeal had been taken from the trial…