MD Propertyco LLC v. Mad Dog Saloon AZ LLC et al
Filing
8
ORDER re 1 Complaint filed by MD Propertyco LLC: ORDERED that Plaintiff's Complaint, doc. 1, is hereby STRICKEN without prejudice. FURTHER ORDERED that Plaintiff may file an Amended Complaint on or before Monday, December 10, 2012 which shall comply in all respects with this Order and the District Court's Local Rules. See Order for full details. Signed by Magistrate Judge Lawrence O Anderson on 11/28/12. (SJF)
1
WO
2
3
4
5
6
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
7
FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
MD Propertyco, LLC, a Texas limited)
liability company,
)
)
Plaintiff,
)
)
vs.
)
)
Mad Dog Saloon AZ, L.L.C., an Arizona)
limited liability company; Boulder)
Junction-Greenfield, Inc., a Wisconsin)
corporation; Thomas Lalicata, an adult)
individual,
)
)
Defendants.
)
)
No. CV-12-2516-PHX-LOA
ORDER
17
This action arises on the Court’s review of Plaintiff’s Complaint, filed on November
18
26, 2012 by Texas counsel, Christianne L. Edlund, who has moved for admission pro hac
19
vice to represent Plaintiff in the District Court of Arizona per LRCiv 83.1(b)(2). (Docs. 1,
20
6)
21
The Complaint violates the District Court of Arizona’s civil Rules of Practice (“Local
22
Rules” or “LRCiv”) because it was not properly filed in text-searchable format per LRCiv
23
7.1(c), 5.5(b), and the definition of “.pdf,” in the District Court’s ECF Manual, at I(A), p.
24
4. The Court will strike the Complaint without prejudice with leave to file an Amended
25
Complaint. Moreover, Plaintiff alleges federal jurisdiction is predicated, in part, on “28
26
U.S.C. § 1332 as the matter in controversy exceeds the sum or value of $75,000 and is
27
between citizens of different states.” (Doc. 1, ¶ 5 at 3) As discussed below, the Complaint’s
28
citizenship allegations as to MD Propertyco, LLC, a Texas limited liability company, and
1
Defendant Mad Dog Saloon AZ, L.L.C., an Arizona limited liability company, are
2
insufficient to establish complete diversity.
3
A. Local Rules
4
The Ninth Circuit has “explain[ed], yet again, the importance of following the court’s
5
local rules. ‘District courts have broad discretion in interpreting and applying their local
6
rules.’” Simmons v. Navajo Cnty, 609 F.3d 1011, 1017 (9th Cir. 2010) (quoting Miranda v.
7
S. Pac. Transp. Co., 710 F.2d 516, 521 (9th Cir. 1983)). Local rules have “the force of law.”
8
Hollingsworth v. Perry, 558 U.S. 183, 130 S.Ct. 705, 710 (2010) (quoting Weil v. Neary, 278
9
U.S. 160, 169 (1929)). They “are binding upon the parties and upon the court, and a
10
departure from local rules that affects substantial rights requires reversal.” Professional
11
Programs Group v. Department of Commerce, 29 F.3d 1349, 1353 (9th Cir. 1994) (internal
12
quotation marks omitted).
13
The Complaint was not properly filed electronically in text-searchable .pdf format.
14
LRCiv 7.1(c) mandates that “[d]ocuments submitted for filing in the ECF System shall be
15
in a Portable Document Format(PDF).” LRCiv 7.1(c). Compliance with the District Court’s
16
electronic filing format and the ECF Manual is not a petty requirement. Improperly filing
17
pleadings, motions, briefs or other documents in non-text searchable format precludes judges,
18
law clerks and adverse counsel from, among others, highlighting a portion of a pleading or
19
brief and copying it onto another document or order. Thus, use of unauthorized formatting
20
forces extremely busy District of Arizona judges, law clerks and adverse counsel to
21
unnecessarily retype portions of a filed document to be quoted or referenced and causes
22
unnecessary delay in the creation of orders and responsive briefs. Compliance with LRCiv
23
7.1(c) and the ECF Manual by lawyers is not optional.
24
B. Citizenship of Limited Liability Companies
25
A federal district court is a court of limited jurisdiction, and the burden of establishing
26
jurisdiction is on the party claiming jurisdiction. Kokkonen v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of Am.,
27
511 U.S. 375, 377 (1994) (“Federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction. . . . It is to be
28
presumed that a cause lies outside this limited jurisdiction, and the burden of establishing the
-2-
1
contrary rests upon the party asserting jurisdiction.”) (citations omitted). Here, “Plaintiff has
2
the burden of establishing the Court’s jurisdiction.” San Carlos Irrigation and Drainage
3
Dist. v. U.S., 2005 WL 3434704, at *1 (D. Ariz. Dec. 14, 2005) (citations omitted). “A
4
[district] court has an obligation to inquire sua sponte into its subject matter jurisdiction, and
5
to proceed no further if such jurisdiction is wanting.” Feldman v. Allstate Ins. Co., 322 F.3d
6
660, 665 (9th Cir. 2003).
7
When there is complete diversity between the parties and the amount in controversy
8
is over $75,000.00, a district court may property assert subject-matter jurisdiction over a case
9
pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332. In cases where entities, like corporations, rather than
10
individuals are litigants, diversity jurisdiction depends on the form of the entity. In
11
Hertz Corp. v. Friend, ___ U.S. ___, 130 S. Ct. 1181, 1192 (2010), the Supreme Court held
12
that, for diversity jurisdiction purposes, a complaint or removal notice must allege both the
13
corporation’s state of incorporation and location of the principal place of business, which is
14
its “nerve center,” i.e., “the place where a corporation’s officers direct, control, and
15
coordinate the corporations activities.” At the pleading stage and absent unusual
16
circumstances, a party seeking to invoke diversity jurisdiction should affirmatively allege,
17
but need not prove, the actual citizenship of the parties. Kanter v. Warner–Lambert Co., 265
18
F.3d 853, 857 (9th Cir. 2001) (“[I]n a diversity action, the plaintiff must state all parties’
19
citizenships such that the existence of complete diversity can be confirmed.”) (citation
20
omitted). The Ninth Circuit has recently established that a complaint that follows the general
21
framework set forth in Form 7(a) in the Appendix of Forms to the Federal Rules of Civil
22
Procedure is sufficient to satisfy Rule 8(a)(1)’s jurisdictional pleading requirement.1 Harris
23
24
25
26
27
28
1
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Form 7(a) in the Appendix of Forms sets out a
proposed format for alleging diversity:
The plaintiff is [a citizen of Michigan ] [a corporation incorporated under the laws of
Michigan with its principal place of business in Michigan ]. The defendant is [a
citizen of New York ] [a corporation incorporated under the laws of New York with
its principal place of business in New York ]. The amount in controversy, without
-3-
1
v. Rand, 682 F.3d 846, 850-52 (9th Cir. 2012).
2
For purposes of diversity jurisdiction and unlike corporations, limited liability
3
companies “are analogized to partnerships, which take the citizenship of every general and
4
limited partner. Lincoln Prop. Co., 546 U.S. at 84 n. 1 (citing Carden v. Arkoma Assocs., 494
5
U.S. 185, 189 (1990) (“for diversity purposes, a partnership entity, unlike a corporation, does
6
not rank as a citizen; to meet the complete diversity requirement, all partners, limited as well
7
as general, must be diverse from all parties on the opposing side.”)); Johnson v. Columbia
8
Props. Anchorage, LP, 437 F.3d 894, 899 (9th Cir. 2006) (“[E]very circuit that has
9
addressed the question treats [an LLC] like partnerships for the purposes of diversity
10
jurisdiction.”) (citations omitted). “We therefore join our sister circuits and hold that, like
11
a partnership, an LLC is a citizen of every state of which its owners/members are citizens.”
12
Id. A complaint “must expressly identify each member of any limited partnerships, and/or
13
limited liability companies, along with each member’s citizenship. Such jurisdictional
14
allegations are necessary for this Court to conclude whether diversity jurisdiction is
15
satisfied.” Liberty Propane, L.P. v. Feheley, 2006 WL 2553396, at *1 n. 1
16
(D. Ariz. Aug. 29, 2006).
17
“Diversity jurisdiction is based on citizenship, not residency.” Kalinowski v.
18
Davol, Inc., 2006 WL 2615894, at *2 (D. Ariz. Sept. 11, 2006 ) (emphasis in original). “To
19
be a citizen of a particular state, a natural person must both be a citizen of the United States
20
and be domiciled within that state.” Id. (citing Newman-Green, Inc. v. Alfonzo-Larrain, 490
21
U.S. 826, 828 (1989)). “A person’s domicile is his or her permanent home, where he or she
22
resides with the intention to remain or to return.” Id. (citing Lew v. Moss, 797 F.2d 747, 749
23
(9th Cir. 1986)). A person residing in a given state, however, is not necessarily domiciled
24
there, and is not necessarily a citizen of that state. Kanter, 265 F.3d at 857.
25
On the Court’s own motion and because the Clerk of Court is not authorized to strike
26
27
28
interest and costs, exceeds the sum or value specified by 28 U.S.C. § 1332.
Fed.R.Civ.P. Form 7(a) (2007) (brackets in original).
-4-
1
a non-conforming pleading or filing, Rule 5(d)(4), Fed.R.Civ.P.,
2
IT IS ORDERED that Plaintiff’s Complaint, doc. 1, is hereby STRICKEN without
3
prejudice. If Plaintiff timely and fully complies with this Order, Plaintiff’s Amended
4
Complaint shall relate back to its initial filing date pursuant to Rule 15, Fed.R.Civ.P. If
5
Plaintiff elects to base jurisdiction on 28 U.S.C. § 1332, the Amended Complaint must
6
expressly identify each member of each limited liability company, along with each member’s
7
citizenship.
8
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Plaintiff may file an Amended Complaint on or
9
before Monday, December 10, 2012 which shall comply in all respects with this Order and
10
the District Court’s Local Rules.
11
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that counsels’ pleadings, motions, memoranda, or
12
other filings in this case shall be created via personal computer with a word processing
13
application, e.g., Microsoft Word® or Corel WordPerfect®, then converted to portable
14
document format (.pdf). See LRCiv 7.1(c) and definition of “.pdf”, ECF Manual, at I(A),
15
p. 4. (“[E]lectronic documents must be converted to .pdf directly from a word processing
16
program (e.g., Microsoft Word® or Corel WordPerfect®) and must be text searchable.”).
17
Such filings shall not be printed to paper and then scanned and saved as portable document
18
format (.pdf). Documents which exist only in paper form, like exhibits or certain attachments
19
to pleadings may, however, be scanned from a paper copy and saved in a portable document
20
format (.pdf).
21
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that counsel shall hereinafter comply with the Rules
22
of Practice for the United States District Court for the District of Arizona, as amended on
23
December 1, 2012. The District’s Rules of Practice may be found on the District Court’s
24
internet web page at www.azd.uscourts.gov/. All other rules may be found at
25
www.uscourts.gov/rules/. Counsel are also reminded of the certification to comply with the
26
Local Rules and Standards of Professional Conduct with admission to practice pro hac vice
27
in this District Court. The Standards of Professional Conduct are located on the District’s
28
website, click on link “Attorney Information,” and then click on link “Attorney Admissions
-5-
1
2
Information.”
Dated this 28th day of November, 2012.
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
-6-
Disclaimer: Justia Dockets & Filings provides public litigation records from the federal appellate and district courts. These filings and docket sheets should not be considered findings of fact or liability, nor do they necessarily reflect the view of Justia.
Why Is My Information Online?