Lanesborough 2000, LLC v. Nextres, LLC
- P. Castel
- 1:23-cv-07584
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Lanesborough v. Nextres, Judge Castel ordered citizenship disclosures because the pleadings did not establish diversity jurisdiction.
Nextres, LLC must provide declarations identifying its members and their citizenship or business information within fourteen days. The order also affects Lanesborough 2000, LLC because the court could not yet determine whether diversity jurisdiction exists.
What happened
Lanesborough 2000, LLC submitted a second amended petition and supporting declaration to correct allegations about the parties’ citizenship. The declaration stated that Lanesborough’s sole member, Rebecca V. Stayton, is a United Kingdom citizen living in Florida on an E-2 visa.
The court explained that Lanesborough therefore has foreign citizenship for diversity-jurisdiction purposes. Diversity jurisdiction would exist only if Nextres, LLC’s members had the required United States citizenship and state citizenship. But the filings gave conflicting information about Nextres’s members, including whether ACJ Capital Holdings, LLC or Kirill “Kirk” Ayzenberg was a member, and did not establish Ayzenberg’s citizenship.
The court ordered Nextres to file declarations identifying all its members and providing the citizenship and business-location information required for each type of member. Judge Castel gave Nextres fourteen days to do so. The order did not decide the underlying merits of the petition.
The detailed version
- Lanesborough 2000, LLC v. Nextres, LLC · No. 1:23-cv-07584
- P. Castel
- May 28, 2024
Background
Lanesborough submitted a Second Amended Petition after the court’s May 10, 2024 order directed it to correct its allegations about Lanesborough’s and Nextres’s citizenship. Lanesborough also submitted a declaration from its sole member, Rebecca V. Stayton, stating that she is a citizen of the United Kingdom who is present in the United States and residing in Florida on an E-2 visa.
Jurisdictional Issue
The court explained that, because Stayton is not lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States, Lanesborough takes her foreign citizenship for purposes of diversity jurisdiction. The court therefore needed to determine whether Nextres was a citizen of a U.S. state.
The petition alleged that Nextres is a Delaware limited liability company whose sole member is Kirill “Kirk” Ayzenberg, a U.S. citizen domiciled in California. Supporting materials identified a California address for Ayzenberg and included other information suggesting that he lives in Los Angeles. But the supporting declaration did not address whether Ayzenberg is a U.S. citizen. In addition, Nextres’s foreign limited liability company annual report listed ACJ Capital Holdings, LLC as its authorized member, while reports for another limited liability company allegedly owned by Ayzenberg listed Ayzenberg himself as the authorized member. Nextres had described itself only as a foreign authorized limited liability company organized under Delaware law.
Order
The court concluded that it could not determine from the Second Amended Petition and supporting declaration whether diversity jurisdiction existed. Within fourteen days, Nextres was ordered to file: (1) a declaration identifying all of its members; (2) citizenship declarations from each natural-person member; (3) information about the incorporation state and principal place of business of any corporate member; and (4) corresponding citizenship information for any limited liability company or partnership that is a member. Judge P. Castel issued the order on May 28, 2024. The order addressed the court’s ability to determine subject-matter jurisdiction and did not decide the merits of the petition.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.