Jack London Square Associates, LLC v. Access Equity Group, LLC
- Jesse Furman
- 1:20-cv-03086
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Jack London Square Associates v. Access Equity Group, Judge Furman ordered citizenship allegations amended or the complaint will be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.
Jack London Square Associates, LLC must amend its complaint to provide the required citizenship allegations by April 30, 2020. The case may be dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction if complete diversity cannot be truthfully alleged.
What happened
Jack London Square Associates, LLC sued Access Equity Group, LLC in federal court, claiming the parties were citizens of different states. The complaint said the plaintiff was a California citizen and the defendant was a New York citizen.
The court explained that a limited liability company’s citizenship depends on the citizenship of all its members. The complaint did not identify the citizenship of the people or entities making up the defendant LLC, or the citizenship of all individual parties.
Judge Jesse Furman ordered the plaintiff to amend its complaint by April 30, 2020, to provide the missing citizenship information. The court said the complaint would be dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction if the plaintiff could not truthfully allege complete diversity.
The detailed version
- Jack London Square Associates, LLC v. Access Equity Group, LLC · No. 1:20-cv-03086
- Jesse Furman
- Apr. 17, 2020
Background
Jack London Square Associates, LLC brought the action against Access Equity Group, LLC and invoked diversity jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332. The complaint alleged that Jack London Square Associates was a citizen of California and that Access Equity Group was a citizen of New York.
Jurisdictional issue
For diversity jurisdiction, an LLC is treated as a citizen of every state where each of its members is a citizen. A complaint relying on diversity jurisdiction must therefore identify the citizenship of the individuals who are LLC members and, for corporate members, their state of incorporation and principal place of business. It must also identify the citizenship of members that are themselves LLCs. The court found that the complaint did not provide the required information about the entities and individuals comprising the defendant LLC, or about all individual parties.
Order
The court ordered the plaintiff to amend its complaint by April 30, 2020, to allege the citizenship of each constituent person or entity comprising the defendant LLCs and the citizenship of all individual parties. The court did not dismiss the complaint at this stage. Instead, it stated that the complaint would be dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction without further notice if the plaintiff could not truthfully allege complete diversity. Judge Jesse M. Furman issued the order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.