Ferrer v. Westchester Saving People
- Lewis Kaplan
- 1:25-cv-01703
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Ferrer v. Westchester Savings Bank, Judge Kaplan remanded the action because defendants failed to adequately allege citizenship establishing federal jurisdiction.
Melissa Ferrer and the defendants in the removed action; the case was sent back to the court from which it was removed.
What happened
In Ferrer v. Westchester Savings Bank, defendants removed the action to federal court, claiming federal jurisdiction based on the parties’ citizenship. The court previously found that the removal papers did not adequately identify the citizenship of Melissa Ferrer and certain defendant entities.
Defendants filed an amended removal notice that corrected the allegations about the defendant entities. It still did not allege that Ferrer was a citizen of New York and the United States. The court explained that alleging a person’s residence is not enough to establish citizenship.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ruled that the defect remained and remanded the action to the court from which it was removed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction and removability.
The detailed version
- Ferrer v. Westchester Saving People · No. 1:25-cv-01703
- Lewis Kaplan
- Mar. 11, 2025
Background
Defendants removed the action to federal court based on diversity of citizenship. In an earlier order dated February 28, 2025, the court found that the notice of removal did not adequately allege the citizenship of plaintiff Melissa Ferrer or the nature and citizenship of one or more defendant entities. The court stated that the action would be remanded unless defendants filed an amended notice correcting those defects.
Defendants’ Amended Notice
Defendants filed an amended notice of removal. According to the court, the amended notice corrected the allegations concerning the nature and citizenship of the defendant entities. It did not, however, allege that Ferrer was a citizen of New York and of the United States.
The court relied on prior decisions explaining that a person’s residence, by itself, does not establish citizenship. Citizenship requires more than an allegation of residence.
Ruling
The court held that the amended notice still failed to establish the citizenship needed for diversity jurisdiction. Accordingly, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan remanded the action to the court from which it had been removed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction and, therefore, lack of removability. The opinion does not identify that court by name.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.