Cohen v. Rebekah Children's Services Foundation
- Nathanael Cousins
- 5:25-cv-10711
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Amy Cohen v. Rebekah Children's Services, Judge Cousins ordered defendants to explain why the case should not be remanded for lack of federal jurisdiction.
The parties in the removed case are affected. LT Medical, LLC and LocumTenens.com, LLC must respond by December 31, 2025, and Amy Cohen may respond by January 7, 2026.
What happened
In Amy Cohen v. Rebekah Children's Services Foundation, Inc., and others, LT Medical, LLC and LocumTenens.com, LLC removed the case from Santa Clara County Superior Court to federal court.
The court questioned whether it had authority to hear the case. Defendants asserted that the parties were citizens of different states, but they did not provide information about the citizenship of the owners or members of the defendant limited liability companies, which is needed to determine whether complete diversity exists. The court found that defendants had provided enough information about the amount in controversy.
Judge Nathanael M. Cousins ordered defendants to file a written response by December 31, 2025, explaining why the case should not be returned to state court for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Plaintiff may respond by January 7, 2026. The order did not itself remand the case.
The detailed version
- Cohen v. Rebekah Children's Services Foundation · No. 5:25-cv-10711
- Nathanael Cousins
- Dec. 22, 2025
Background
LT Medical, LLC and LocumTenens.com, LLC removed the case from Santa Clara County Superior Court to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on December 16, 2025. The court issued an order to show cause, requiring the removing defendants to explain why the case should not be sent back to state court.
Subject-Matter Jurisdiction
Federal district courts have limited authority to hear cases. The defendants relied on diversity jurisdiction, which requires complete diversity of citizenship between the parties and more than $75,000 in controversy.
The defendants asserted that Amy Cohen is a citizen of Tennessee and that LT Medical, LLC and LocumTenens.com, LLC are organized and headquartered in Georgia. The court explained that an LLC is a citizen of every state in which its owners or members are citizens. Because the defendants did not provide information about their owners' or members' citizenship, the court could not determine whether complete diversity existed.
The court found that the defendants had provided enough information to establish that the amount-in-controversy requirement was satisfied. But it concluded that they had not established federal subject-matter jurisdiction because they used the wrong test for an LLC's citizenship and did not provide sufficient facts.
Order
The court ordered the defendants to show cause in writing by December 31, 2025, why the case should not be remanded to state court for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. Plaintiff may respond by January 7, 2026. Judge Nathanael M. Cousins did not order a remand in this opinion; he required further written responses before deciding that issue.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.