New South Insurance Company v. Capital City Movers LLC
- John Cronan
- 1:20-cv-04087
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In New South Insurance v. Capital City Movers, Judge Cronan ordered citizenship disclosures to assess diversity jurisdiction.
New South Insurance Company, Capital City Movers LLC, First Rate Movers LLC, David Brown, and the other defendants were required or permitted to provide information bearing on diversity jurisdiction; the order did not decide the merits of the case.
What happened
New South Insurance Company sued Capital City Movers LLC and other defendants, invoking federal jurisdiction based on the parties’ citizenship. The complaint did not properly identify the citizenship of Capital City Movers LLC or First Rate Movers LLC.
The court explained that an LLC’s citizenship depends on the citizenship of each member. Because the parties were already briefing summary-judgment motions, the court chose to gather the missing information through additional filings rather than require an amended complaint.
Judge John P. Cronan ordered New South Insurance Company to file an affidavit listing all defendants’ citizenships by March 11, 2022. Appearing Defendant David Brown had to respond by March 18, 2022, and other defendants could also submit filings; the order did not decide whether diversity jurisdiction actually existed.
The detailed version
- New South Insurance Company v. Capital City Movers LLC · No. 1:20-cv-04087
- John Cronan
- Mar. 2, 2022
Background
New South Insurance Company’s complaint alleged federal subject-matter jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332, the statute authorizing jurisdiction based on diversity of citizenship. The court found that the complaint did not properly allege the citizenship of the two LLC defendants, Capital City Movers LLC and First Rate Movers LLC.
Jurisdictional Standard
The court explained that an unincorporated association, including an LLC, has the citizenship of each of its members. Although a complaint must adequately allege facts supporting diversity jurisdiction, an incomplete jurisdictional allegation does not always require dismissal. The court may allow the complaint to be amended, or may treat the pleadings as corrected if the record as a whole establishes the required diversity of citizenship.
Order
Because the parties were briefing motions for summary judgment, the court determined that supplementing the record would preserve judicial resources. It ordered New South Insurance Company to submit, by March 11, 2022, an affidavit describing the citizenship of all defendants. By March 18, 2022, the appearing defendant David Brown had to file a letter stating his views on whether diversity of citizenship existed. If the parties disputed jurisdiction, Brown was also directed to submit an affidavit addressing relevant facts. Any other defendant could file a letter or affidavit regarding diversity. New South Insurance Company also had to serve the order on the non-appearing defendants within two days and file proof of service.
The order did not determine whether diversity jurisdiction existed and did not rule on the pending summary-judgment motions.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.