Hishis v. Pain D'Avignon Plaza GC16, LLC
- Garnett
- 1:25-cv-02181
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Hishis v. Pain D’Avignon Plaza GC16, LLC, Judge Garnett gave Plaintiff 45 days to establish diversity jurisdiction.
The plaintiffs, including Uensal Hishis and the parties represented by the caption’s “et al.,” must provide additional allegations about Café D’Avignon’s members’ citizenship. Pain D’Avignon Plaza GC16, LLC is affected because the action may be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction if complete diversity is not truthfully alleged.
What happened
In Hishis v. Pain D’Avignon Plaza GC16, LLC, the court found that the complaint did not adequately allege the citizenship of the defendant limited liability company’s members. The complaint’s statement that the parties were diverse was not enough.
The court gave Plaintiff 45 days to file an amended complaint identifying the citizenship of every individual member of Café D’Avignon and, if any corporation is a member, that corporation’s place of incorporation and principal place of business. The court stated that the action will be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction if Plaintiff does not truthfully allege complete diversity by then.
Judge Margaret M. Garnett did not dismiss the action in this order; she allowed Plaintiff an opportunity to amend and warned that dismissal would follow without further notice if the jurisdictional defect is not corrected.
The detailed version
- Hishis v. Pain D'Avignon Plaza GC16, LLC · No. 1:25-cv-02181
- Garnett
- Mar. 18, 2025
Background
Uensal Hishis, individually and on behalf of Lenny Sanverdi and others, sued Pain D’Avignon Plaza GC16, LLC, doing business as Café D’Avignon. The complaint invoked diversity jurisdiction, which allows a federal court to hear certain disputes between citizens of different states or countries.
Jurisdictional Defect
The court explained that a complaint relying on diversity jurisdiction must distinctly allege the parties’ citizenship. For a limited liability company, the complaint must identify the citizenship of each individual member. If a corporation is a member, it must identify the state or country where that corporation was incorporated and its principal place of business. Alleging only the parties’ residences or the defendant’s principal place of business is not enough.
The complaint alleged that Café D’Avignon was a New York limited liability company with its principal place of business in Long Island City, New York. It did not identify the citizenship of any of Café D’Avignon’s members. The court found that the complaint’s general assertion of complete diversity was insufficient.
Order
The court allowed Plaintiff to file an amended complaint within 45 days. The amendment must truthfully allege the citizenship of all natural-person members of Café D’Avignon and, if applicable, the incorporation jurisdiction and principal place of business of any corporate member. The court stated that, if Plaintiff fails to amend to truthfully allege complete diversity by that deadline, the action will be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction without further notice. Judge Margaret M. Garnett therefore issued a procedural order requiring more complete jurisdictional allegations; the order did not itself dismiss the case.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.