Blythe v. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, LLC
- Paul Engelmayer
- 1:20-cv-06610
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Blythe v. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Judge Torres ordered Blythe to amend the complaint to properly allege the parties’ citizenship.
Mark Blythe was required to amend the complaint to provide the citizenship information necessary to establish diversity jurisdiction. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, LLC, and the case were subject to possible dismissal if the amendment was not timely and sufficient.
What happened
In Blythe v. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Mark Blythe sued Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, LLC, on behalf of himself and others similarly situated. The complaint relied on diversity jurisdiction, which allows certain cases involving citizens of different states to be heard in federal court.
The court said that, if Morgan Stanley Smith Barney is a limited liability company, the complaint must identify the citizenship of every person or entity that belongs to it. For individual members, that means their citizenship; for corporate members, it means their state of incorporation and principal place of business.
Judge Analisa Torres ordered Blythe to amend the complaint by September 1, 2020, to provide this information truthfully and establish complete diversity. The court warned that failure to do so would result in dismissal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
The detailed version
- Blythe v. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, LLC · No. 1:20-cv-06610
- Paul Engelmayer
- Aug. 25, 2020
Background
Mark Blythe brought a putative class action against Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, LLC. The complaint invoked diversity jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332.
Jurisdictional issue
The court explained that a limited liability company has the citizenship of each of its members for purposes of diversity jurisdiction. Therefore, if Morgan Stanley Smith Barney is an LLC, the complaint had to allege the citizenship of every constituent person or entity. For individual members, the complaint had to allege their citizenship. For corporate members, it had to allege the place of incorporation and principal place of business.
Order
Judge Analisa Torres ordered Blythe to amend the pleading by September 1, 2020, to allege the citizenship of each constituent person or entity truthfully. The court stated that if Blythe failed to amend by that date and establish complete diversity, the complaint would be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The opinion does not state that the complaint was dismissed at this stage.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.