Spivey v. MCR Development LLC
- Valerie Caproni
- 1:23-cv-03007
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Spivey v. MCR Development LLC, Judge Caproni ordered an amended complaint identifying MCR’s LLC members’ citizenship to support diversity jurisdiction.
Angela Spivey must provide the required citizenship allegations for MCR Development LLC’s members or face dismissal without prejudice for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.
What happened
In Spivey v. MCR Development LLC, Angela Spivey sued MCR Development LLC and alleged that federal jurisdiction was based on the parties’ citizenship being different.
The court explained that an LLC’s citizenship comes from its members. The complaint described MCR’s formation and principal place of business but did not identify the citizenship of its members.
Judge Caproni ordered Spivey to file an amended complaint fixing that omission by April 14, 2023. The order says the complaint will be dismissed without prejudice for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction if she does not do so.
The detailed version
- Spivey v. MCR Development LLC · No. 1:23-cv-03007
- Valerie Caproni
- Apr. 11, 2023
Background
Angela Spivey filed a complaint against MCR Development LLC, doing business as MCR Hotels. The complaint alleged that the court had diversity jurisdiction, meaning federal jurisdiction based on the parties’ citizenship.
Court’s Analysis
The court explained that a limited liability company has the citizenship of each of its members. A complaint relying on diversity jurisdiction must therefore identify the citizenship of an LLC’s members, including the citizenship of members that are themselves LLCs, as applicable.
The complaint alleged that MCR Development LLC was incorporated under Delaware law and had its principal place of business in New York. But it did not allege the citizenship of MCR’s members. The court treated that omission as a deficiency in the jurisdictional allegations.
Order
Judge Valerie Caproni ordered Spivey to file an amended complaint curing the identified deficiencies no later than Friday, April 14, 2023. The order states that the complaint will be dismissed without prejudice for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction if the deficiencies are not cured.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.