Medpace, Inc. v. Agenus Inc.
- Jesse Furman
- 1:25-cv-04179
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Medpace v. Agenus, Judge Furman gave Medpace one final chance to plead diversity jurisdiction before possible dismissal.
Medpace, Inc., which must provide additional citizenship information about the defendants and the members of certain LLCs to avoid the stated possibility of dismissal for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.
What happened
In Medpace, Inc. v. Agenus Inc., the court had ordered Medpace to identify the citizenship of the defendants and their members so the court could determine whether diversity jurisdiction existed.
Medpace filed an amended complaint, but it did not identify the citizenship of the members of two limited liability companies that belonged to Equiniti Trust Company, LLC. The court said those allegations were still insufficient to establish complete diversity of citizenship.
Judge Furman gave Medpace one final opportunity to amend by May 30, 2025. He ordered that the amended complaint will be dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction if Medpace cannot provide the required information.
The detailed version
- Medpace, Inc. v. Agenus Inc. · No. 1:25-cv-04179
- Jesse Furman
- May 27, 2025
Background
Medpace, Inc. sued Agenus Inc. and other defendants. The court previously ordered Medpace to amend its complaint to allege the citizenship of each person or entity making up the defendants, including all individual parties. This information was required to establish diversity jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332, which allows federal courts to hear certain disputes involving parties who are citizens of different states.
Medpace filed an amended complaint on May 23, 2025. It alleged that two members of Equiniti Trust Company, LLC—Armor Holding II LLC and Armor Intermediate Company LLC—were limited liability companies, but it did not allege the citizenship of any members of those LLCs. The court explained that an LLC's citizenship must be traced through every layer of LLC membership.
Ruling
The court ruled that the amended allegations remained inadequate to establish subject-matter jurisdiction. It gave Medpace one final opportunity to amend the complaint and adequately establish complete diversity of citizenship by May 30, 2025. The court stated that, if Medpace could not do so, the amended complaint would be dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction without further notice. The order did not itself dismiss the amended complaint.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.