Castelan v. CA 2952 Holdings LLC

Background

Maria Castelan brought a negligence action against CA 2952 Holdings LLC and Burlington Stores Inc. She alleged that the defendants were responsible for damages she sustained after falling at a location maintained by Burlington. Burlington removed the case from Supreme Court, Bronx County, to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Burlington asserted that the federal court had diversity jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332. Diversity jurisdiction generally requires that every plaintiff be a citizen of a different state from every defendant. Burlington’s removal notice stated that Castelan was a New York citizen. The complaint also identified CA 2952 as a foreign limited liability corporation licensed to do business in New York, with its principal place of business in New York, but the removal papers and complaint did not identify CA 2952’s members or their citizenship.

Jurisdictional Issue

Castelan asked the court to remand, or return, the case to state court for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. The court ordered Burlington to show why remand should not occur and authorized limited discovery concerning jurisdiction. The court explained that if CA 2952 was an LLC, its citizenship would be based on the citizenship of each member, rather than simply on its place of business or the state where it was licensed.

Burlington did not conduct the authorized discovery. It argued that CA 2952 had not appeared through counsel and relied instead on Castelan’s sworn statements that CA 2952 was a foreign LLC and therefore diverse from her. The court rejected that argument, explaining that another party’s lack of appearance did not relieve Burlington of its burden to investigate and establish federal jurisdiction. The court also noted that Burlington provided no legal support or evidence showing that CA 2952 was actually a corporation rather than an LLC.

Ruling

Judge Analisa Torres held that Burlington had not shown that the parties were completely diverse. Castelan’s pleadings did not identify the members of CA 2952 or their citizenship, so those pleadings were insufficient to establish subject-matter jurisdiction. Because Burlington did not meet its burden to show that removal was proper, the court remanded the matter to Supreme Court, Bronx County.

The court directed the Clerk to terminate all motions, hearings, and deadlines and to close the federal case. The opinion did not state that the negligence claims were decided on their merits.