Crown Publishing Group v. McNichol Pictures Inc.
- P. Castel
- 1:25-cv-09022
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
Crown Publishing Group v. McNichol Pictures Inc.: Judge Castel ordered plaintiff to amend its complaint to properly allege citizenship or face dismissal for lack of jurisdiction.
The plaintiff must provide additional citizenship and membership information within 14 days. The action may be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction if complete diversity is not alleged; the defendant is affected because the case may otherwise proceed or be dismissed.
What happened
In Crown Publishing Group v. McNichol Pictures Inc., the complaint claimed that the federal court had authority because the parties were citizens of different states. The court found that the allegations did not adequately establish the citizenship of the plaintiff limited liability company.
The court explained that an LLC’s citizenship depends on the citizenship of its members, not simply on who owns it. The complaint described ownership relationships but did not identify all required members and their citizenship information.
Judge Castel ordered the plaintiff to amend its complaint within 14 days to provide the missing information. If the plaintiff does not establish complete diversity, the action will be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction without further notice.
The detailed version
- Crown Publishing Group v. McNichol Pictures Inc. · No. 1:25-cv-09022
- P. Castel
- Nov. 5, 2025
Background
The complaint invoked diversity jurisdiction, which allows a federal court to hear certain disputes between citizens of different states. The court emphasized that the complaint must clearly allege the citizenship of every adverse party.
The caption identifies Crown Publishing Group as the plaintiff and McNichol Pictures Inc. as the defendant. The opinion’s discussion of the complaint, however, refers to the plaintiff as Penguin Random House LLC. That complaint allegedly described the plaintiff as a limited liability company with PRH Publications LLC and PRH Holdings LLC as members. It also stated that PRH Publications LLC and PRH Holdings LLC were wholly owned by Bertelsmann Publishing Group, Inc., and alleged Delaware organization and New York principal places of business for the entities discussed. The defendant was alleged to be a Florida corporation with its principal place of business in Florida.
Jurisdictional Deficiency
For an LLC, citizenship is determined by the citizenship of every member. If an LLC member is itself an LLC, the complaint must identify the citizenship of that LLC’s members. If a member is a corporation, the complaint must state the corporation’s state of incorporation and principal place of business.
The court held that alleging an LLC is “wholly owned” by a parent corporation does not adequately allege the LLC’s membership. Ownership alone does not establish whether the parent is a member. The complaint therefore did not sufficiently allege the plaintiff LLC’s citizenship or establish complete diversity.
Order and Effect
The court ordered the plaintiff to amend its complaint within 14 days. The amended complaint must truthfully and accurately allege the plaintiff LLC’s membership, the citizenship of all relevant individual members, and the required corporate information for any corporate members. The court stated that if the plaintiff fails to allege complete diversity by that deadline, the action will be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction without further notice.
The order did not itself dismiss the action or decide the underlying dispute between the parties.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.