Bluebird Reinsurance Company Ltd. v. ParkWest Advisors Group, LLC
- John Cronan
- 1:20-cv-04481
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Bluebird Reinsurance v. ParkWest Advisors, Judge Furman ordered a jurisdictional amendment by June 22 or dismissal for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.
Bluebird Reinsurance Company Ltd. must amend its complaint to provide the citizenship information required to establish diversity jurisdiction. ParkWest Advisors Group, LLC is affected because the citizenship of its members must be alleged.
What happened
Bluebird Reinsurance Company Ltd. sued ParkWest Advisors Group, LLC, claiming that the court had jurisdiction because the parties were citizens of different places. The complaint alleged that Bluebird was a citizen of Bermuda and ParkWest was a citizen of New York.
The court explained that an LLC's citizenship depends on the citizenship of all its members. The complaint did not identify the citizenship of ParkWest's members and alleged business addresses instead of the parties' citizenship as required for diversity jurisdiction.
Judge Jesse M. Furman ordered Bluebird to amend its complaint by June 22, 2020, to allege the citizenship of every person or entity comprising ParkWest. If Bluebird could not truthfully allege complete diversity, the complaint would be dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction without further notice.
The detailed version
- Bluebird Reinsurance Company Ltd. v. ParkWest Advisors Group, LLC · No. 1:20-cv-04481
- John Cronan
- June 15, 2020
Background
Bluebird Reinsurance Company Ltd. brought the action against ParkWest Advisors Group, LLC. The complaint invoked federal subject-matter jurisdiction based on diversity of citizenship under 28 U.S.C. § 1332. It alleged that Bluebird was a citizen of Bermuda and that ParkWest was a citizen of New York.
Jurisdictional Deficiency
The court explained that a limited liability company is treated as a citizen of every state of which its members are citizens. A complaint relying on diversity jurisdiction must therefore identify the citizenship of the individuals who are members of an LLC and the relevant incorporation and principal-business locations of corporate members. It must also identify the citizenship of members that are themselves LLCs. The complaint did not provide this information for ParkWest. The court also found that the complaint alleged only the parties' business addresses rather than their citizenship.
Order
The court ordered Bluebird to amend its complaint by June 22, 2020, to allege the citizenship of each person or entity comprising ParkWest. The order stated that if Bluebird could not truthfully allege complete diversity of citizenship, the complaint would be dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction without further notice. The order did not decide the underlying merits of the dispute.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.