Elevation Health LLC v. BQC Global Supply Inc.
- Paul Engelmayer
- 1:22-cv-10308
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Elevation Health v. BQC Global Supply, Judge Engelmayer granted leave to amend so Elevation Health could identify its members’ citizenship for diversity jurisdiction.
Elevation Health LLC must amend its complaint to provide the information needed to determine whether the federal court has diversity jurisdiction; the defendants remain parties to the case while that issue is addressed.
What happened
In Elevation Health LLC v. BQC Global Supply Inc., Elevation Health based federal jurisdiction only on the parties’ different citizenships. The complaint identified Illinois as the company’s state of organization and principal place of business but did not identify the citizenship of its members.
The court explained that a limited liability company has the citizenship of each member. It ordered Elevation Health to file an amended complaint identifying the citizenship of individual members and the incorporation and principal-place-of-business information for any corporate members.
By Judge Paul A. Engelmayer’s order, the court granted Elevation Health leave to amend by December 17, 2022. The court stated that if Elevation Health could not truthfully allege complete diversity, the complaint would be dismissed without prejudice for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.
The detailed version
- Elevation Health LLC v. BQC Global Supply Inc. · No. 1:22-cv-10308
- Paul Engelmayer
- Dec. 7, 2022
Background
Elevation Health, LLC filed the complaint on December 7, 2022. It asserted that diversity of citizenship was the sole basis for federal subject-matter jurisdiction. The complaint alleged that Elevation Health was organized under Illinois law and had its principal place of business in Illinois, but it did not allege the citizenship of Elevation Health’s members.
Jurisdictional issue
The court explained that an LLC’s citizenship is the citizenship of each of its constituent members. To determine whether diversity jurisdiction exists, the court required the complaint to identify the citizenship of any individual members and, for any corporate members, the place of incorporation and principal place of business.
Order
The court granted Elevation Health leave to amend under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(a)(2). The amended complaint was due by December 17, 2022, and had to allege the citizenships of all members of the LLCs identified in the order. The court stated that if Elevation Health could not truthfully allege complete diversity based on the citizenship of each member, the complaint would be dismissed without prejudice for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. Judge Paul A. Engelmayer did not decide the underlying claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.