Perez v. Maybach International Group, LLC
- Valerie Caproni
- 1:24-cv-01027
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
Perez v. Maybach International Group, LLC: Judge Caproni remanded the case because defendants did not establish complete diversity jurisdiction.
Arlyn Perez, Maybach International Group, LLC, and Adley Brutus; the case was returned to the Supreme Court of New York, County of Bronx.
What happened
In Perez v. Maybach International Group, LLC, the defendants removed Arlyn Perez’s case from New York Supreme Court to federal court, claiming that the parties were citizens of different states.
The court explained that a limited liability company’s citizenship depends on the citizenship of all its members. The defendants did not provide the members’ citizenship, even after receiving two opportunities to do so.
Judge Valerie Caproni ordered the Clerk of Court to remand the case to the Supreme Court of New York, County of Bronx, because the defendants had not shown that the federal court had subject-matter jurisdiction.
The detailed version
- Perez v. Maybach International Group, LLC · No. 1:24-cv-01027
- Valerie Caproni
- Feb. 27, 2024
Background
Defendants Maybach International Group, LLC and Adley Brutus filed a notice of removal on February 12, 2024, seeking to move Arlyn Perez’s case from New York Supreme Court to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. They asserted that federal jurisdiction was based on diversity of citizenship, which generally requires complete diversity between the parties.
The complaint alleged that Maybach International Group, LLC was incorporated under Illinois law, but it did not identify the citizenship of the LLC’s members. The court explained that an LLC has the citizenship of its members, including the citizenship of any corporate or LLC members further up its ownership chain.
Jurisdictional Deficiency
Because the defendants invoked federal jurisdiction, they had to adequately establish that complete diversity existed. The court ordered them to file an affidavit addressing jurisdiction by February 21, 2024. Their filing did not adequately identify the citizenship of Maybach International Group, LLC’s members. The court then gave them a second opportunity, with a February 23, 2024 deadline, but they filed nothing establishing the members’ citizenship.
Ruling
The court concluded that the defendants had not demonstrated complete diversity and therefore had not established subject-matter jurisdiction. Judge Valerie Caproni ordered the Clerk of Court to remand the case to the Supreme Court of New York, County of Bronx. The opinion did not decide the underlying claims.
Effect
The federal court case was returned to the specified New York state court. The opinion does not describe the underlying claims or establish the citizenship of the individual parties.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.