Collins v. Molina-Lagos
- Valerie Caproni
- 1:23-cv-04236
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Collins v. Molina-Lagos, U.S. District Judge Caproni ordered affidavits to clarify whether federal diversity jurisdiction existed.
Queen Teresa Collins, Santos Molina-Lagos, Raymours Furniture Company, Inc., and their lawyers; the order required filings concerning federal jurisdiction and service.
What happened
In Collins v. Molina-Lagos, Queen Teresa Collins sued Santos Molina-Lagos and Raymours Furniture Company, Inc. for damages from a vehicle accident. The case began in New York state court, and the defendants later moved it to federal court.
The order questioned whether the parties were citizens of different states, as required for this type of federal jurisdiction. Collins said she lived in New York, but a police report showed that her driver’s license listed a Virginia address. The order did not decide whether the federal court had jurisdiction.
U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni ordered Collins to file a sworn statement identifying her permanent home address when she filed the case. If she was domiciled in Virginia then, the defendants’ lawyer must provide additional information about when the defendants received the police report. The defendants also had to serve the order on Collins’s lawyer and file proof of service.
The detailed version
- Collins v. Molina-Lagos · No. 1:23-cv-04236
- Valerie Caproni
- May 23, 2023
Background
Queen Teresa Collins filed the case in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Bronx County, on September 15, 2022. She sought damages arising from a vehicle accident on September 16, 2019. On May 22, 2023, Santos Molina-Lagos and Raymours Furniture Company, Inc. filed a notice of removal, seeking to transfer the case from state court to federal court.
The defendants stated that Molina-Lagos was a New Jersey resident and that Raymours was a New York corporation based in New York. Collins alleged that she lived in New York. But the defendants said that a police report connected to the accident, which they asserted was produced on April 25, 2023, showed that Collins’s driver’s license listed an address in Virginia. Collins’s lawyer told defense counsel by email that Collins lived in New York when the lawsuit was filed but declined to provide an affidavit confirming that statement.
Jurisdictional issue
Federal courts may hear a state-law case based on diversity jurisdiction only when the parties are completely diverse in citizenship. The party invoking that jurisdiction has the burden of showing that it exists. Ordinarily, the relevant citizenship is determined when the lawsuit begins. The opinion also noted that subject-matter jurisdiction—the court’s power to hear the case—may be questioned at any time, including by the court.
The court ordered further information to determine Collins’s permanent home, or domicile, on September 15, 2022. The order did not decide whether the parties were completely diverse or whether the removal was timely.
Order
Judge Valerie Caproni ordered Collins to file, by May 30, 2023, a sworn affidavit identifying her permanent home address on September 15, 2022. If Collins was domiciled in Virginia when she filed the action, the defendants’ counsel had to file, by June 2, 2023, a declaration stating when Collins produced the September 16, 2019 police report and whether counsel had access to that report from the defendants before that date. The defendants also had to serve the order on Collins’s counsel by May 24, 2023, and file proof of service on the docket.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.