Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(a) requires a defendant to
serve an answer "within 21 days after being served with the
summons and complaint." The time for serving an answer changes
if a defendant serves a motion under Rule 12. In that case,
"if the court denies the motion or postpones its disposition
until trial, the responsive pleading must be served within 14 days
after notice of the court's action . . . ." Fed. R. Civ.
P. 12(a)(4)(A).
The question then arises whether a Rule 12(b) motion to dismiss
directed at only a portion of the complaint still tolls
the time for answering the entire complaint, or whether
the movant must still respond to the portion of the complaint of
which the motion was not directed. See Gerlach v. Michigan Bell
Tel. Co., 448 F. Supp. 1168, 1174 (E.D. Mich. 1978)
("F.R.C.P. 12 does not explicitly address the issue of whether
the filing of a motion under F.R.C.P. 12(b) also alters the time
within which the moving party must respond to
