Mosley v. Music Times, LLC
- Rochon
- 1:25-cv-04015
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Mosley v. Music Times, Judge Rochon ordered Mosley to clarify the parties’ citizenship or face possible dismissal for lack of jurisdiction.
Roderick D. Mosley and Music Times, LLC; the order requires Mosley to provide additional citizenship allegations and warns that the complaint may be dismissed if complete diversity cannot be truthfully established.
What happened
Roderick D. Mosley sued Music Times, LLC, claiming federal jurisdiction because the parties are citizens of different states. He alleged that he is a Georgia citizen and that Music Times is a New York LLC with its principal place of business in New York.
The court explained that an LLC’s citizenship depends on the citizenship of each of its members. Mosley’s complaint did not identify the citizenship of every person or entity that makes up Music Times, so the court found that the complaint did not adequately establish complete diversity of citizenship.
Judge Jennifer L. Rochon ordered Mosley to amend the complaint by May 22, 2025, to provide the required citizenship information. The court stated that if Mosley could not truthfully allege complete diversity, the complaint would be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction without further notice.
The detailed version
- Mosley v. Music Times, LLC · No. 1:25-cv-04015
- Rochon
- May 15, 2025
Background
Roderick D. Mosley brought this action against Music Times, LLC. He invoked federal subject-matter jurisdiction based on diversity of citizenship under 28 U.S.C. § 1332. The complaint alleges that Mosley is a citizen of Georgia and that Music Times is a New York limited liability company incorporated in New York with its principal place of business in New York, New York.
Jurisdictional pleading problem
The court explained that a limited liability company is treated as a citizen of every state in which its members are citizens. A complaint relying on diversity jurisdiction therefore must identify the citizenship of each person or entity that is a member of the LLC, including the citizenship of members that are themselves LLCs. The complaint must also affirmatively allege the citizenship of individual parties. The court determined that Mosley’s complaint did not affirmatively plead the citizenship of each member of Music Times.
Order
The court ordered Mosley to amend the complaint by May 22, 2025. The amended complaint must allege the citizenship of each constituent person or entity comprising Music Times and the citizenship of all individual parties. The court stated that if Mosley is unable to amend the complaint to truthfully allege complete diversity of citizenship, the complaint will be dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction without further notice. The court did not dismiss the complaint in this order and did not address the underlying claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.