Production Resource Group, LLC v. Event Entertainment Group, Inc.
- Jesse Furman
- 1:22-cv-02244
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Production Resource Group v. Event Entertainment Group, Judge Furman ordered citizenship allegations amended to establish diversity jurisdiction.
Production Resource Group, LLC must amend its complaint to identify the citizenship of each constituent member. Event Entertainment Group, Inc. is affected because the case may be dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction if complete diversity cannot be truthfully alleged.
What happened
Production Resource Group, LLC sued Event Entertainment Group, Inc., claiming that the federal court could hear the case because the parties were citizens of different states.
The court explained that an LLC has the citizenship of every person or entity that belongs to it. The complaint did not identify the citizenship of each of Production Resource Group’s members.
Judge Furman ordered Production Resource Group to amend its complaint by April 4, 2022, to provide that information. He stated that the complaint would be dismissed for lack of federal jurisdiction if the company could not truthfully allege complete diversity.
The detailed version
- Production Resource Group, LLC v. Event Entertainment Group, Inc. · No. 1:22-cv-02244
- Jesse Furman
- Mar. 22, 2022
Background
Production Resource Group, LLC brought the action against Event Entertainment Group, Inc. The complaint relied on diversity jurisdiction, which allows a federal court to hear certain cases between citizens of different states. Production Resource Group alleged that it was a citizen of Delaware and New York, that its members were not citizens of Florida, and that Event Entertainment Group was a citizen of Florida.
Court’s Analysis
The court explained that a limited liability company is considered a citizen of every state where each of its members is a citizen. A complaint relying on diversity jurisdiction therefore must identify the citizenship of each LLC member. For individual members, it must allege their citizenship; for corporate or other entity members, it must provide the required citizenship information, including information about members of any member LLCs. The court also stated that citizenship must be affirmatively alleged, rather than described only in general terms.
Order
The court found that the complaint did not affirmatively allege the citizenship of each constituent member of Production Resource Group. It ordered Production Resource Group to amend the complaint by April 4, 2022, to allege that information. The court stated that if the company could not truthfully allege complete diversity, the complaint would be dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction without further notice. Judge Jesse M. Furman did not decide the underlying claims in this order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.