Ricci v. FVP Investments, LLC
- Rochon
- 1:25-cv-05542
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Ricci v. FVP Investments, Judge Rochon gave Ricci one final chance to plead citizenship details needed for diversity jurisdiction before possible dismissal.
Joseph Ricci must provide additional citizenship allegations about FVP Investments, LLC and its members by July 23, 2025, or the amended complaint may be dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.
What happened
In Ricci v. FVP Investments, LLC, Joseph Ricci brought a case claiming the court could hear it because the parties were citizens of different states. His original complaint did not properly identify the citizenship of all members of FVP Investments, LLC or establish the required citizenship of individual parties.
Ricci filed an amended complaint, alleging that he was domiciled in Rhode Island and that FVP Investments was incorporated in Delaware with a principal address in New York. But the court found that he still had not identified every person or entity that made up the LLC, and that describing Keith Lee as a United States citizen and New York resident did not establish his state citizenship.
Judge Jennifer L. Rochon allowed Ricci one final opportunity to file a second amended complaint by July 23, 2025, identifying the citizenship of each LLC member. The order states that if Ricci cannot truthfully allege complete diversity, the amended complaint will be dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction without further notice.
The detailed version
- Ricci v. FVP Investments, LLC · No. 1:25-cv-05542
- Rochon
- July 16, 2025
Background
Joseph Ricci filed this action invoking diversity jurisdiction, which allows a federal court to hear certain disputes involving citizens of different states. The original complaint did not properly allege the citizenship of FVP Investments, LLC. For an LLC, the court explained, the complaint must identify the citizenship of each member, including the relevant citizenship information for any members that are themselves entities. The complaint instead alleged the citizenship of the LLC’s managing member without stating that FVP Investments was a single-member LLC or identifying any other members. It also alleged residence rather than the required state citizenship for Ricci and Lee.
On July 7, 2025, the court ordered Ricci to amend the complaint by July 14, 2025, to allege the citizenship of every person or entity comprising FVP Investments and the citizenship of all individual parties. The court warned that the complaint would be dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction if Ricci could not truthfully allege complete diversity.
Amended Complaint
Ricci filed an amended complaint on July 15, 2025. It alleged that Ricci was domiciled in Rhode Island, that FVP Investments was incorporated in Delaware and had a “principal address” in New York, and that its managing member, Keith Lee, was a United States citizen believed to reside in New York City.
The court found that the amended complaint properly alleged Ricci’s citizenship but still did not properly allege FVP Investments’ citizenship. It did not identify every constituent person or entity of the LLC, and it did not affirmatively state that the LLC had only one member. The court also found that Lee’s alleged United States citizenship and New York residence did not establish his state citizenship, because an individual’s citizenship depends on domicile rather than residence alone.
Order and Effect
The court permitted Ricci one final opportunity to amend. It ordered him to file a second amended complaint by July 23, 2025, alleging the citizenship of each constituent person or entity comprising FVP Investments. The court did not dismiss the case in this order. Instead, it stated that if Ricci could not truthfully allege complete diversity by that deadline, the amended complaint would be dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction without further notice. Judge Jennifer L. Rochon signed the order.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.