Sandoval Abreu v. The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company LLC
- John Cronan
- 1:25-cv-06601
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Sandoval Abreu v. Stop & Shop, Judge Cronan ordered the defendant to clarify its citizenship or face remand to state court.
The defendant must provide additional information about its citizenship to establish federal diversity jurisdiction; otherwise, the case may be remanded to state court.
What happened
Sandoval Abreu v. The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company LLC was removed from New York state court after the defendant claimed the federal court had diversity jurisdiction. The notice identified Christopher Sandoval Abreu as a New York citizen and described the defendant’s ownership structure.
The court explained that a limited liability company has the citizenship of its members. Because the defendant’s sole member is a Delaware corporation, the notice also had to identify that corporation’s principal place of business. The notice did not provide that information.
Judge John P. Cronan ordered the defendant to amend its notice of removal by August 26, 2025, to properly allege the defendant’s citizenship. If it did not do so, or otherwise failed to establish federal jurisdiction, the court said it would remand the case to state court without further notice.
The detailed version
- Sandoval Abreu v. The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company LLC · No. 1:25-cv-06601
- John Cronan
- Aug. 19, 2025
Background
The case was removed from the New York Supreme Court for Bronx County on August 18, 2025. The defendant invoked diversity jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a), which allows certain disputes between citizens of different states to be heard in federal court.
The removal notice stated that Plaintiff Christopher Sandoval Abreu was a citizen and resident of New York. It described Defendant The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company LLC as a Delaware limited liability company whose sole member was Ahold U.S.A., Inc., a Delaware corporation. The notice also identified the ultimate parent of Ahold U.S.A., Inc. as Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize N.V., a publicly traded limited liability company registered in The Netherlands.
Jurisdictional issue
For diversity-jurisdiction purposes, a limited liability company has the citizenship of each of its members. When a corporation is a member, the corporation is a citizen of both its state of incorporation and the state where it has its principal place of business. The principal place of business is the location where the corporation’s officers direct, control, and coordinate its activities.
The court found that the notice properly identified Ahold U.S.A., Inc. as a Delaware corporation but did not state Ahold U.S.A., Inc.’s principal place of business. The court therefore concluded that the notice did not yet properly allege the citizenship of the defendant’s members for purposes of diversity jurisdiction.
Order
The court ordered Defendant The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company LLC to amend the notice of removal by August 26, 2025, to properly allege the citizenship of the limited liability company’s members. The court stated that if no amended notice was filed by that date, or if the defendant otherwise failed to establish jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a)(2), the court would order the case remanded to state court without further notice.
Judge John P. Cronan did not issue a ruling on the underlying dispute. The order addressed only whether the defendant had adequately established the federal court’s subject-matter jurisdiction.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.