Sima v. Nelson, Mullins, Riley & Scarborough LLP
- Valerie Caproni
- 1:24-cv-03909
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Sima v. Nelson, Judge Caproni ordered an amended complaint by June 20, 2024, to properly allege diversity jurisdiction.
Amanda Sima must file an amended complaint addressing the court’s subject matter jurisdiction; the defendants are affected because the case must proceed with an adequate jurisdictional allegation.
What happened
In Sima v. Nelson, Mullins, Riley & Scarborough LLP, Amanda Sima alleged that the court had jurisdiction because the parties were citizens of different states. The complaint identified Nelson, Mullins, Riley & Scarborough LLP as a limited liability partnership headquartered in Columbia, South Carolina, but did not identify the citizenship of its members.
The court explained that a limited liability partnership is treated as a citizen of every state where its partners are citizens. A complaint relying on diversity jurisdiction must therefore identify the citizenship of an LLP’s members, along with specified information for any corporate members.
Judge Valerie Caproni ordered Sima to file an amended complaint by June 20, 2024, adequately alleging that the court has subject matter jurisdiction.
The detailed version
- Sima v. Nelson, Mullins, Riley & Scarborough LLP · No. 1:24-cv-03909
- Valerie Caproni
- June 6, 2024
Background
Amanda Sima initiated the action on May 20, 2024. The complaint alleged that the court had subject matter jurisdiction based on diversity of citizenship. The caption identifies Nelson, Mullins, Riley & Scarborough LLP and Ashley Summer, Esq. as defendants.
The complaint alleged that Nelson, Mullins, Riley & Scarborough LLP is a limited liability partnership headquartered in Columbia, South Carolina, with 33 offices nationwide. It did not allege the citizenship of the partnership’s members.
Jurisdictional requirement
The court explained that a limited liability partnership is treated as a citizen of every state of which its partners are citizens. A complaint relying on diversity jurisdiction must allege the citizenship of natural-person members of the partnership and the place of incorporation and principal place of business of any corporate members.
Order
Judge Valerie Caproni ordered Sima to file an amended complaint no later than June 20, 2024. The amended complaint must adequately allege that the court has subject matter jurisdiction. The order did not decide the underlying claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.