aerogen, llc v. Tapjets Holdings, Inc.
- Lorna Schofield
- 1:24-cv-03840
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
Aerogen v. Tapjets Holdings: Judge Schofield remanded the case to state court because defendants did not adequately establish diversity jurisdiction.
The plaintiffs and defendants in the removed case were affected; the case was returned to the New York state court from which it had been removed.
What happened
Aerogen LLC, et al. v. TapJets Holdings, Inc., et al. involved defendants’ removal of a state-court case to federal court based on diversity jurisdiction.
The court found that the removal notice did not adequately establish the citizenship of each member of the plaintiff limited liability companies, the citizenship rather than residence of the individual defendants, or the parties’ citizenship when the case began and when it was removed.
Judge Lorna G. Schofield remanded the matter to state court and directed the clerk to close the federal case and send a certified copy of the order to the New York Supreme Court in New York County.
The detailed version
- aerogen, llc v. Tapjets Holdings, Inc. · No. 1:24-cv-03840
- Lorna Schofield
- May 28, 2024
Background
Defendants filed a notice of removal on May 17, 2024, moving the case from state court to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. They relied on diversity jurisdiction, which generally requires more than $75,000 to be at issue and complete diversity of citizenship between opposing parties.
Court’s Analysis
The court explained that an LLC generally has the citizenship of each of its members, so a party seeking federal jurisdiction must identify the citizenship of every member of each plaintiff LLC. The court also explained that a notice of removal must allege citizenship, not merely residence, for individual parties. In addition, when diversity is the only basis for removal, the required diversity must exist both when the state-court case began and when the case was removed.
The court found the notice of removal procedurally defective because it did not provide enough facts to establish the citizenship of each member of each plaintiff LLC, the citizenship of the individual defendants, or the parties’ citizenship at both required times.
Disposition
Judge Lorna G. Schofield ordered that the matter be remanded to state court. The clerk was directed to close the federal case and mail a certified copy of the order to the Supreme Court of the State of New York, New York County, under 28 U.S.C. § 1447(c).
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.