GCube Insurance Services, Inc. v. Neighborhood Power Corporation
- Alison Nathan
- 1:20-cv-04912
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In GCube Insurance v. Neighborhood Power, Judge Nathan ordered Neighborhood Power to clarify its citizenship or face dismissal for lack of jurisdiction.
Neighborhood Power Corporation must amend its notice of removal to provide the required citizenship information. GCube Insurance Services, Inc. and the other named plaintiff interests could be affected because the court stated that the case would be dismissed if complete diversity could not be truthfully alleged.
What happened
GCube Insurance Services sued Neighborhood Power Corporation, and Neighborhood Power moved the case from New York state court to federal court based on the parties allegedly being citizens of different states.
The federal court noted that the removal papers identified GCube as a California citizen and Neighborhood Power’s principal place of business as being in Hawaii, but did not identify Neighborhood Power’s state of incorporation. The original complaint described Neighborhood Power as a California corporation.
Judge Alison J. Nathan ordered Neighborhood Power to amend its removal notice within ten days to fully and truthfully allege its citizenship. If it could not establish complete diversity, the court stated that the case would be dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction without further notice.
The detailed version
- GCube Insurance Services, Inc. v. Neighborhood Power Corporation · No. 1:20-cv-04912
- Alison Nathan
- July 9, 2020
Background
GCube Insurance Services, Inc., individually and on behalf of Certain Underwriters at Lloyds London, Subscribing to Policy SO 174415602, brought the action against Neighborhood Power Corporation. Neighborhood Power removed the case from New York Supreme Court to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, asserting federal subject-matter jurisdiction based on diversity of citizenship.
Jurisdictional allegations
The notice of removal alleged that GCube was a citizen of California. It alleged that Neighborhood Power was authorized to do business in New York and had its principal place of business in Kahului, Hawaii, but it did not allege Neighborhood Power’s state of incorporation. The original complaint described Neighborhood Power as a California corporation.
For diversity jurisdiction, the court explained that a corporation is treated as a citizen of both its state of incorporation and the state where it has its principal place of business. The court also stated that federal courts must independently determine whether subject-matter jurisdiction exists.
Order
The court ordered Neighborhood Power, within ten days of the order’s date, to amend its notice of removal to fully allege its citizenship, including its state of incorporation and principal place of business. The court stated that if Neighborhood Power could not truthfully allege complete diversity of citizenship by that deadline, the case would be dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction without further notice. Judge Alison J. Nathan did not dismiss the case in this order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.