Collins v. Molina-Lagos

Background

Queen Teresa Collins originally brought this vehicle-accident damages case in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Bronx County, on September 15, 2022. She alleged that the accident occurred on September 16, 2019. Santos Molina-Lagos and Raymours Furniture Company, Inc. later filed a notice removing the case to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The defendants asserted federal diversity jurisdiction. The opinion states that Molina-Lagos is a New Jersey resident and that Raymours is a New York corporation based in New York. Collins alleged that she resides in New York, but an accident-related police report showed that her driver’s license reflected an address in Virginia.

Jurisdictional issue

Federal diversity jurisdiction generally requires every plaintiff to be a citizen of a different state from every defendant. Courts ordinarily examine the parties’ citizenship when the lawsuit begins. The court noted that Collins filed an affidavit stating that, when she brought the lawsuit, she was permanently residing at an address in the Bronx. She also filed what appeared to be a paystub showing the same New York address as of October 6, 2022.

The defendants had argued that Collins’s affidavit did not clearly identify her domicile—the place establishing her legal citizenship for diversity purposes—and therefore did not resolve whether the parties were diverse. The court had previously ordered the defendants to show why the case should not be sent back to state court in light of the affidavit. The opinion text is incomplete where it describes the defendants’ June 16 position, but the court’s order makes clear that it required further briefing on remand and removal timing.

Order

The court did not rule on whether the case would be remanded. It ordered Collins to file any motion to remand by Friday, June 30, 2023. The defendants’ response was due Friday, July 14, 2023, and Collins’s reply was due Friday, July 21, 2023.

The defendants’ response also had to include a declaration stating when Collins produced the September 16, 2019 police report and whether the defendants had access to that report before that date. The court stated that this information was needed to determine whether removal was timely.

Disposition

The order set a briefing schedule and required additional information. It did not grant or deny a motion to remand and did not decide the parties’ citizenship or the timeliness of removal.