Deitrick v. Cibolo Capital Partners I, LLC
- Edgardo Ramos
- 1:17-cv-04165
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Deitrick v. Cibolo Capital Partners I, LLC, Judge Ramos ordered a jurisdiction declaration identifying LLC members and citizenship.
The parties to the case—William Deitrick, Jr., Cibolo Capital Partners I, LLC, and TG LLC—must provide information needed to determine whether the federal court has diversity jurisdiction.
What happened
Deitrick v. Cibolo Capital Partners I, LLC concerns whether the court has diversity jurisdiction over the dispute. William Deitrick, Jr. is a New York citizen, and both defendants are limited liability companies whose members determine their citizenship.
The court could not find the citizenship of the members of Red Star CI Interests, LLC, which is a member of Cibolo Capital Partners I, LLC. Without that information, the court could not confirm that all parties are citizens of different states.
Judge Edgardo Ramos ordered the parties to jointly submit a declaration by January 21, 2020, identifying the members and citizenship of Cibolo and TG LLC, and tracing the members of any other unincorporated entities in the ownership chain.
The detailed version
- Deitrick v. Cibolo Capital Partners I, LLC · No. 1:17-cv-04165
- Edgardo Ramos
- Jan. 16, 2020
Background
The parties invoked diversity jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332. That form of federal jurisdiction requires complete diversity, meaning that no plaintiff may share state citizenship with any defendant.
William Deitrick, Jr. is a citizen of New York. Both defendants, Cibolo Capital Partners I, LLC and TG LLC, are limited liability companies. For a limited liability company, citizenship is determined by the citizenship of all its members. If a member is itself an LLC, partnership, or other unincorporated association, the court must trace the ownership chain and identify the citizenship of that entity's members as well.
The opinion states that the members of TG LLC are Win Purifoy and Will Howard, both citizens of Texas. It also states that the members of Cibolo are Purifoy, Howard, and Red Star CI Interests, LLC, described as a Texas limited liability company. The court could not find information in the record identifying Red Star's members or their state citizenship.
Court's Action
Because the court has an independent duty to confirm its subject-matter jurisdiction, it ordered the parties to jointly submit a declaration by Tuesday, January 21, 2020, at 12:00 p.m. The declaration must identify the members of Cibolo and TG, the citizenship of those members, and, for any member that is an LLC, partnership, or other unincorporated association, that entity's members and citizenship.
The opinion does not decide whether diversity jurisdiction exists and does not address the underlying dispute. The classification is procedural because the order addresses the court's threshold jurisdictional inquiry.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.