Gossip SRL v. Dragone, LLC

Background

Gossip SRL's complaint alleged that it is a corporation organized under Italian law with its principal place of business in Castelfiorentio, Italy. The opinion states that Dragone, LLC's members were not identified in the jurisdictional allegations.

Jurisdictional issue

The court addressed diversity jurisdiction, which allows federal courts to hear certain civil cases involving citizens of different states or qualifying foreign parties when the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000. For a limited liability company, citizenship depends on the citizenship of each member, including the relevant information for any corporate member.

The court explained that complete diversity must exist: no plaintiff and defendant may share citizenship, and foreign parties on both sides can also defeat diversity jurisdiction. Because Gossip SRL was alleged to be Italian, the court stated that diversity jurisdiction would be unavailable if any member of Dragone, LLC were a foreign citizen.

Order

The court allowed Gossip SRL, within 14 days, to serve Dragone, LLC with an interrogatory limited to the citizenship of all natural-person members and, for any corporate member, its place of incorporation and principal place of business. Dragone, LLC was required to respond within 14 days.

The court also ordered Gossip SRL to file an amended complaint within 45 days curing the defects in its jurisdictional allegations. It stated that the complaint would be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction if the defects were not cured. The order did not itself dismiss the complaint or decide the underlying dispute.