Tower 570 Company LP v. Affiliated FM Insurance Company
- Jesse Furman
- 1:20-cv-00799
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Tower 570 v. Affiliated FM, Judge Furman ordered Tower 570 to correct missing citizenship allegations supporting federal jurisdiction.
Tower 570 Company LP must provide additional citizenship allegations by May 28, 2020. Affiliated FM Insurance Company and Travelers Property Casualty Company of America are affected because the case may be dismissed if complete diversity cannot be truthfully established.
What happened
Tower 570 Company LP sued Affiliated FM Insurance Company and Travelers Property Casualty Company of America in Tower 570 Company LP v. Affiliated FM Insurance Company. Tower 570 relied on the parties’ citizenship to establish the federal court’s authority to hear the case.
The court explained that a limited partnership must identify the citizenship of all its partners, and that a limited liability company must identify the citizenship of all its members. The complaint did not provide the required information about the people and entities connected to Tower 570.
The court ordered Tower 570 to amend its complaint by May 28, 2020, to provide those citizenship allegations. Judge Jesse M. Furman stated that if Tower 570 could not truthfully show complete diversity, the complaint would be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
The detailed version
- Tower 570 Company LP v. Affiliated FM Insurance Company · No. 1:20-cv-00799
- Jesse Furman
- May 21, 2020
Background
Tower 570 Company LP sued Affiliated FM Insurance Company and Travelers Property Casualty Company of America. The complaint invoked diversity jurisdiction, which allows a federal court to hear certain disputes involving citizens of different states. Tower 570 alleged that it was a New York limited partnership and that some of its members were limited liability companies.
Court’s Analysis
The court explained that a limited partnership has the citizenship of each general and limited partner. A limited liability company has the citizenship of each of its members. Therefore, a complaint relying on diversity jurisdiction must identify the citizenship of every constituent person or entity in the limited partnership, including the members of any member limited liability companies. For corporate members, the complaint must allege the place of incorporation and principal place of business. The complaint did not provide these required allegations, or the citizenship of all individual parties.
Ruling
The court ordered Tower 570 to amend its complaint on or before May 28, 2020, to allege the citizenship of each constituent person or entity that was a member of Tower 570 and the citizenship of all individual parties. The court did not dismiss the complaint in this order. It stated that if Tower 570 could not truthfully allege complete diversity, the complaint would be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction without further notice. 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.