CareandWear II, Inc. v. Nexcha L.L.C.
- Paul Engelmayer
- 1:20-cv-08773
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In CareandWear II v. Nexcha, Judge Nathan ordered plaintiff to clarify Nexcha’s members’ citizenship or face dismissal for lack of jurisdiction.
CareandWear II, Inc. must provide additional allegations about the citizenship of Nexcha L.L.C.’s members; Nexcha is affected because the sufficiency of federal jurisdiction depends on that information.
What happened
CareandWear II, Inc. sued Nexcha L.L.C., claiming federal jurisdiction based on the parties’ citizenship. The complaint alleged that CareandWear was incorporated in Delaware with its principal place of business in New York, and that Nexcha was a Connecticut limited liability company with its principal place of business in Connecticut.
The court explained that a limited liability company has the citizenship of each of its members, so the complaint had to identify the citizenship of every person or entity that makes up Nexcha, including the incorporation state and principal place of business of any corporate member.
Judge Nathan ordered CareandWear to amend its complaint within 20 days to provide that information. The order stated that if CareandWear 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
- CareandWear II, Inc. v. Nexcha L.L.C. · No. 1:20-cv-08773
- Paul Engelmayer
- Nov. 20, 2020
Background
CareandWear II, Inc. brought the action based on diversity of citizenship, a form of federal jurisdiction that generally requires complete diversity between the opposing parties. The complaint alleged that CareandWear was a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in New York. It alleged that Nexcha L.L.C. was a Connecticut limited liability company with its principal place of business in Connecticut.
Jurisdictional issue
The court explained that an LLC has the citizenship of each of its members. Therefore, a complaint relying on diversity jurisdiction must allege the citizenship of every individual or entity that is a member of the LLC. For a corporate member, citizenship includes both the state of incorporation and the state of its principal place of business.
Order
The court ordered CareandWear to amend its complaint within 20 days to allege the citizenship of each person or entity comprising Nexcha, including the required information for any corporate member. The court stated that if CareandWear could not truthfully allege complete diversity by that deadline, the complaint would be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction without further notice. The order did not itself dismiss the complaint.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.