Zhu v. Ge
- Susan Illston
- 3:19-cv-08028-SI
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 1
In Zhu v. Ge, Judge Illston ordered Zhu to explain why the case should not be dismissed for lack of diversity jurisdiction.
Pro se plaintiff Xiaodan Zhu, who was required to address whether the federal court had diversity jurisdiction before the case could proceed.
What happened
In Zhu v. Ge, pro se plaintiff Xiaodan Zhu claimed that the federal court had diversity jurisdiction because the parties lived in different states and the damages exceeded $75,000.
The complaint listed Zhu's address in San Francisco and Gary Ge's address in Santa Clara, both in California. It also listed Yushan Duan's phone number with a 408 area code, which the court said is associated with San Jose, California.
The court ordered Zhu to file a written explanation by January 10, 2020, addressing diversity jurisdiction and why the case should not be dismissed. Judge Susan Illston did not dismiss the case in this order.
The detailed version
- Zhu v. Ge · No. 3:19-cv-08028-SI
- Susan Illston
- Dec. 12, 2019
Background
Pro se plaintiff Xiaodan Zhu filed this action on December 9, 2019. Zhu's complaint alleged that the court had diversity jurisdiction because no plaintiff lived in the same state as any defendant and the amount of damages exceeded $75,000.
Jurisdictional concern
The court questioned whether diversity jurisdiction existed based on information in the complaint's caption. Zhu's address was listed as 5941 California Street, San Francisco, California. Defendant Gary Ge's address was listed as 1992 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, California. The complaint also listed defendant Yushan Duan's phone number with a 408 area code, which the court stated is associated with San Jose, California. Based on those details, the court stated that it did not appear to have diversity jurisdiction.
Order
The court ordered Zhu to show in writing why the action should not be dismissed for lack of federal jurisdiction. Zhu was ordered to file a brief concerning diversity jurisdiction by January 10, 2020. The order did not itself dismiss the action. Judge Susan Illston signed the order.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.