Holland v. Lions Gate Entertainment and Films
- Analisa Torres
- 1:21-cv-02944
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Holland v. Lions Gate, Judge Torres stayed the case and ordered defendants to disclose citizenship needed to assess diversity jurisdiction.
Cory Holland, Sr. and the defendants are affected: the case is stayed, and the defendants must provide citizenship information so the court can assess its jurisdiction.
What happened
In Cory Darnell Holland, Sr. v. Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., Curtis Jackson, Starz Entertainment Group, LLC., and Courtney A. Kemp, Holland, who is representing himself, brings state-law claims seeking more than $75,000. He identifies himself as a Michigan citizen.
The court said it could hear the case only if the parties have diverse citizenship, but the defendants had not provided enough information to determine their citizenship. The court also said it needed information about Starz Entertainment Group, LLC.'s members if that entity is a limited liability company.
The court stayed the case pending further order and required the defendants to file a letter by April 7, 2022, detailing each defendant's citizenship, including Starz's members. Judge Analisa Torres also directed the Clerk to mail the order to Holland.
The detailed version
- Holland v. Lions Gate Entertainment and Films · No. 1:21-cv-02944
- Analisa Torres
- Mar. 31, 2022
Background
Cory Holland, Sr., proceeding without a lawyer, brought state-law claims against Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., Curtis Jackson, Starz Entertainment Group, LLC., and Courtney A. Kemp. He sought damages exceeding $75,000 and alleged that he is a citizen of Michigan.
Jurisdictional Issue
The court explained that no federal claims were at issue, so federal jurisdiction depended on diversity of citizenship. The defendants had not established their citizenship sufficiently for the court to determine whether diversity jurisdiction existed. The court further stated that, if Starz Entertainment Group, LLC. is a limited liability company, it needed information about the citizenship of the individuals who are its members, as well as the incorporation and principal-place-of-business information for any corporate members.
Ruling
The court stayed the case pending further order. It directed the defendants to file, by April 7, 2022, a letter detailing the citizenship of each defendant, including the members of Starz Entertainment Group, LLC. The court stated that it could not resolve dispositive motions until it determined whether it had jurisdiction. Judge Analisa Torres also directed the Clerk of Court to mail a copy of the order to Holland. The order did not decide the merits of Holland's claims.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.