Toolgal USA Corp. v. Diamond Blade Warehouse, Inc. et al

Filing 5

MEMORANDUM Order Signed by the Honorable Milton I. Shadur on 7/8/2013. Mailed notice by judge's staff. (srb,)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
EASTERN DIVISION
TOOLGAL USA CORP.,
Plaintiff,
v.
DIAMOND BLADE WAREHOUSE, INC.,
et al.,
Defendants.

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No.

13 C 4802

MEMORANDUM ORDER
Toolgal USA Corp. (“Toolgal”) has sued Diamond Blade
Warehouse, Inc. (“Diamond Blade”) and its Chairman and Chief
Operating Officer Alan Mansfield (“Mansfield”), invoking federal
jurisdiction on diversity of citizenship grounds.

This

memorandum order is issued sua sponte because of one problematic
aspect of Toolgal’s jurisdictional allegations.
Complaint ¶2 identifies Mansfield as “a resident of the
State of Illinois” (emphasis added), even though the relevant
fact for diversity purposes is--by definition--his state of
citizenship.

Even though one’s state of citizenship most often

coincides with his or her residence, that is not always the
case--and our Court of Appeals has said and repeated
unequivocally that where residence rather than citizenship is
alleged the District Court must dismiss the action.
This Court has always been loath to inflict such a Draconian
result on a defect that is most likely curable.

Hence Toolgal’s

counsel are granted leave to file an appropriate amendment to

Complaint ¶2 (not a full-bore Amended Complaint) on or before
July 19, 2013 to cure the flawed allegation.

If that is not

timely done, this Court will be constrained to follow the Court
of Appeals’ directive and dismiss this action for lack of subject
matter jurisdiction.

Meanwhile this Court, on the premise that

the defect is indeed curable, is contemporaneously issuing its
customary initial scheduling order.

________________________________________
Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge
Date:

July 8, 2013

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