155 Wooster LLC v. Bruno
- Jesse Furman
- 1:20-cv-04044
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In 155 Wooster LLC v. Bruno, Judge Furman ordered citizenship allegations amended or the complaint could be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.
155 Wooster LLC must provide additional citizenship allegations for the parties and the defendant LLCs. If it cannot truthfully allege complete diversity, the complaint will be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
What happened
In 155 Wooster LLC v. Bruno, 155 Wooster LLC sued Lori Bruno and Modern Manhattan, LLC, relying on the court’s authority over disputes between citizens of different states. The complaint identified citizenship for 155 Wooster LLC and Modern Manhattan, LLC but did not identify all required underlying citizenship information.
The court explained that a limited liability company’s citizenship depends on the citizenship of all its members. A complaint relying on that type of jurisdiction must identify the citizenship of each member, including the citizenship of members that are themselves entities, as well as the citizenship of individual parties.
Judge Jesse M. Furman ordered 155 Wooster LLC to amend its complaint by June 11, 2020. The court stated that if the plaintiff could not truthfully allege complete diversity by then, the complaint would be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction without further notice.
The detailed version
- 155 Wooster LLC v. Bruno · No. 1:20-cv-04044
- Jesse Furman
- May 28, 2020
Background
155 Wooster LLC sued Lori Bruno and Modern Manhattan, LLC. It invoked diversity jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332, which gives federal courts authority over certain disputes involving citizens of different states. The complaint alleged that 155 Wooster LLC is a citizen of New York and that Modern Manhattan, LLC is a citizen of Pennsylvania.
Jurisdictional problem
The court explained that a limited liability company is treated as a citizen of every state in which any of its members is a citizen. Therefore, a complaint based on diversity jurisdiction must identify the citizenship of each person or entity that makes up an LLC, including the citizenship of members that are themselves LLCs. It must also allege the citizenship of individual parties.
The court found that the complaint did not provide the required information about the parties’ citizenship.
Order
The court ordered 155 Wooster LLC to amend its complaint on or before June 11, 2020, to allege the citizenship of each person or entity comprising the defendant LLCs and the citizenship of all individual parties. The court stated that if the plaintiff could not truthfully allege complete diversity of citizenship by that date, the complaint would be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction without further notice.
This was a jurisdictional order; the court did not decide the underlying claims.
Judge
The order was issued by Jesse M. Furman, United States District Judge.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.