Ratermann v. Pierre Fabre USA, Inc.
- Jesse Furman
- 1:22-cv-00325
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Ratermann v. Pierre Fabre USA, Judge Furman ordered an amended complaint to properly plead citizenship for diversity jurisdiction.
Patty Ratermann must provide additional citizenship allegations in an amended complaint. The defendant LLCs and corporations are affected because the complaint must properly allege their citizenship information.
What happened
In Ratermann v. Pierre Fabre USA, Inc., Patty Ratermann brought a case based on the court’s diversity jurisdiction, alleging that she was a New York citizen and identifying the defendants’ business citizenship information. The defendants included limited liability companies and corporations.
The court explained that the complaint did not provide enough information about the citizenship of the limited liability companies’ members. It also did not state the principal place of business of several defendant corporations, which is required along with their places of incorporation.
Judge Jesse M. Furman ordered Ratermann to amend the complaint by February 3, 2022, to properly allege the citizenship of all relevant LLC members and corporations. The court stated that it would dismiss the complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction if she could not truthfully allege complete diversity.
The detailed version
- Ratermann v. Pierre Fabre USA, Inc. · No. 1:22-cv-00325
- Jesse Furman
- Jan. 13, 2022
Background
Patty Ratermann invoked the court’s subject matter jurisdiction based on diversity of citizenship. She alleged that she was a citizen of New York. The complaint named Pierre Fabre USA, Inc., several other corporations, and three limited liability companies: Who Stole the Tarts, LLC, Dermahealth Dermatology PLLC, and Theme Technologies LLC.
Jurisdictional pleading requirements
For diversity jurisdiction, a limited liability company is a citizen of every state of which its members are citizens. A complaint therefore must identify the citizenship of each person or entity that makes up an LLC, including the citizenship of members that are themselves LLCs. The court found that the complaint did not provide this information for the defendant LLCs.
The court also explained that a corporation is a citizen of both its state of incorporation and the state of its principal place of business. The complaint alleged only the states of incorporation for CVS Health Corporation, Quickframe, Inc., Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance, Inc., Walmart, Inc., and Sephora USA, Inc.; it did not allege their principal places of business.
Order
The court ordered Ratermann to amend her complaint by February 3, 2022. The amended complaint must properly allege the citizenship of every person or entity comprising the defendant LLCs and the citizenship of all defendant corporations. The court stated that if Ratermann could not truthfully allege complete diversity of citizenship by that date, the complaint would be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction without further notice to either party. The order did not decide the merits of the underlying claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.