Specialty Granules LLC v. V6 Agronomy, Inc.
- Subramanian
- 1:23-cv-05334
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Specialty Granules v. V6 Agronomy, Judge Subramanian ordered the plaintiff to amend its complaint to properly allege citizenship for diversity jurisdiction.
Specialty Granules LLC, which must provide additional ownership-citizenship information, and V6 Agronomy, Inc., because the court’s jurisdiction over the case depends on complete diversity of citizenship.
What happened
Specialty Granules LLC sued V6 Agronomy, Inc., claiming that the federal court could hear the case because the parties are citizens of different states.
The complaint said Specialty Granules was a citizen of Delaware. The court explained that an LLC’s citizenship depends on the citizenship of each of its members, including the citizenship of entities in its ownership chain. The complaint did not provide that information.
Judge Subramanian ordered Specialty Granules to amend its complaint by August 21, 2023, at 5:00 p.m., to identify the citizenship of each person or entity comprising the LLC. He warned that if the plaintiff could not truthfully allege complete diversity, the complaint would be dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction without further notice.
The detailed version
- Specialty Granules LLC v. V6 Agronomy, Inc. · No. 1:23-cv-05334
- Subramanian
- Aug. 16, 2023
Background
Specialty Granules LLC brought the action against V6 Agronomy, Inc. The complaint invoked diversity jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332, which allows a federal court to hear certain disputes between citizens of different states. The complaint alleged that Specialty Granules was a citizen of Delaware.
Citizenship of an LLC
The court explained that an LLC is a citizen of every state where its members are citizens. Therefore, a complaint relying on diversity jurisdiction must identify the citizenship of each natural-person member and the incorporation state and principal place of business of each corporate member. It must also identify the citizenship of members that are themselves LLCs. The opinion does not provide the citizenship information for Specialty Granules’ members or state V6 Agronomy’s citizenship.
Order
The court ordered Specialty Granules to amend its complaint by August 21, 2023, at 5:00 p.m., to allege the citizenship of each person or entity comprising the plaintiff LLC. The court further ordered that, if Specialty Granules could not truthfully allege complete diversity, the complaint would be dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction without further notice to either party.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.