Pickering v. LM Insurance Corporation
- John Cronan
- 1:20-cv-06055
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Pickering v. LM Insurance, Judge Furman ordered citizenship allegations and denied Liberty Mutual’s moot dismissal motion.
Pickering was required to provide additional allegations about LM Insurance Corporation’s citizenship. LM Insurance remained the named defendant, while Liberty Mutual Insurance Company was terminated as a party and its motion to dismiss was denied as moot. The action could be remanded to New York state court depending on the amended allegations and any response from Pickering.
What happened
Pickering v. LM Insurance Corporation began in New York state court and was removed to federal court by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company based on claimed diversity jurisdiction. Pickering later amended her complaint to name LM Insurance Corporation instead of Liberty Mutual.
The court ordered Pickering to amend the complaint by October 6, 2020, to state LM Insurance’s state of incorporation and principal place of business. If she did not do so, or if the allegations showed that the parties were not completely diverse and she did not explain why the case should remain in federal court, the court said it would remand the action to state court. The court also denied Liberty Mutual’s motion to dismiss as moot and removed Liberty Mutual as a party.
Judge Jesse M. Furman issued the order. The court did not immediately remand the case; it required additional jurisdictional information and made possible remand conditional on what that information showed.
The detailed version
- Pickering v. LM Insurance Corporation · No. 1:20-cv-06055
- John Cronan
- Sept. 22, 2020
Background
Liberty Mutual Insurance Company removed the action from the Supreme Court of New York, County of Bronx, asserting that the federal court had diversity jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332. After Liberty Mutual filed a motion to dismiss, Pickering filed an amended complaint naming LM Insurance Corporation as the sole defendant.
Jurisdictional Issue
For diversity jurisdiction, a corporation is a citizen of each state where it is incorporated and of the state where it has its principal place of business. The amended complaint did not allege either fact about LM Insurance. The court therefore could not determine whether complete diversity existed between the parties, which is required for federal subject-matter jurisdiction.
Order
The court ordered Pickering to amend her amended complaint by October 6, 2020, to properly allege LM Insurance’s citizenship. If she failed to do so, or if the amended complaint showed that the parties were not completely diverse and she failed by that date to show why the case should not be remanded, the court stated that it would remand the action to the Supreme Court of New York, County of Bronx, without further notice.
Because Pickering no longer asserted claims against Liberty Mutual, Judge Jesse M. Furman denied Liberty Mutual’s motion to dismiss as moot. The Clerk was directed to terminate that motion, terminate Liberty Mutual as a party, and revise the docket and caption to match the order. The order did not itself remand the action.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.