CenterPoint Properties Trust v. Aeroground, Inc.
Filing
8
MEMORANDUM Order Signed by the Honorable Milton I. Shadur on 3/14/2013. Mailed notice by judge's staff. (srb,)
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
EASTERN DIVISION
CENTERPOINT PROPERTIES TRUST,
Plaintiff,
v.
AEROGROUND, INC., etc.,
Defendant.
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No.
13 C 1761
MEMORANDUM ORDER
CenterPoint Properties Trust (“CenterPoint”) has recently
filed this action charging a breach of lease (nonpayment of rent)
by Aeroground, Inc. (“Aeroground”), invoking federal jurisdiction
on diversity of citizenship grounds.
This Court is concurrently
issuing its customary initial scheduling order, but this
memorandum order is occasioned by CenterPoint’s need to elaborate
on its jurisdictional allegations.
Complaint ¶1 identifies CenterPoint as a real estate
investment trust, while Complaint ¶3 alleges:
None of CenterPoint’s Trustees is a citizen of
California or Texas.
That last allegation is intended to confirm the required
existence of complete diversity, for Complaint ¶2 identifies
Aeroground’s dual corporate citizenship as lodged in California
and Texas.
But this Court has an independent threshold obligation to
confirm the existence of subject matter jurisdiction, and the
disclaimer in Complaint ¶3 is not necessarily (though it most
frequently may be) dispositive--suppose, for example, that one of
CenterPoint’s trustees is a United States citizen who is
stateless.1
Accordingly CenterPoint must file an amendment to its
Complaint, amplifying the allegation in Complaint ¶3 by
identifying each of its trustees and his, her or its state or
states of citizenship.
If no such amendment were to be filed on
or before March 27, 2013, this Court would be constrained to
dismiss this action (without prejudice, of course) because of
CenterPoint’s failure to establish the existence of federal
jurisdiction.
________________________________________
Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge
Date:
March 14, 2013
1
Earlier in this Court’s judicial career, one of the cases
on its calendar presented that precise situation and ultimately
ended up in the Supreme Court (Newman-Green, Inc. v. AlfonzoLarrain, 490 U.S. 826, 828-29 (1989)).
2
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