Tang v. Southeast Directional Drilling, LLC

Filing 9

MEMORANDUM Order issued sua sponte because of a problematic aspect of the removal papers. This Court will defer its potential acceptance of the removal of this action until December 22, 2016. If no satisfactory correction is made by Southeast's counsel by a filing by that date (with a paper copy being delivered to this Court's chambers), this Court will be compelled to remand this action to its state court place of origin for the lack of an appropriate showing of federal subject matter jurisdiction -- an action called for by 28 U.S.C. § 1447(c). Signed by the Honorable Milton I. Shadur on 12/8/2016:Mailed notice(clw, )

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
EASTERN DIVISION
DAVID TANG,
Plaintiff,
v.
SOUTHEAST DIRECTIONAL
DRILLING, LLC, a PLH GROUP
COMPANY and ZACHARY DAHL,
Defendants.

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Case No. 16 C 11102

MEMORANDUM ORDER
Southeast Directional Drilling, LLC ("Southeast") has filed a Notice of Removal
("Notice") to bring this personal injury action from its place of origin in the Circuit Court of
Cook County to this District Court. This memorandum order is issued sua sponte because of a
problematic aspect of the removal papers.
Because federal subject matter jurisdiction is sought to be grounded in diversity of
citizenship, a brief look should first be taken at the relevant citizenship of the litigants. Here are
the allegations on that score:
1.

Notice ¶ 7 asserts on information and belief that plaintiff David Tang
("Tang") is an Illinois citizen.

2.

Notice ¶ 4 asserts (again on information and belief) that codefendant
Zachary Dahl ("Dahl") is not an Illinois citizen. And Notice ¶ 3 asserts
(once more on information and belief) that he had not been served as of
the December 6 date of filing the Notice, so that his joinder in the removal
documents is not required.

3.

Because Southeast's citizenship as a limited liability company is the
citizenship of each of its members (see, e.g., Wise v. Wachovia Sec., LLC,
450 F.3d 265, 267 (7th Cir. 2006)), the assertions in Notice ¶ 6 as to its
place of incorporation and its principal place of business are totally
irrelevant. What controls instead is the assertion in that same paragraph
that it "is a wholly domestic subsidiary of PLH Group, Inc." ("PLH"),
which Notice ¶ 5 asserts "is a corporation organized under the laws of the
State of Delaware with its principal place of business in the State of
Texas." Those assertions combine to represent that PLH is Southeast's
sole member, so that Southeast is a citizen of Delaware and Texas.

All of that coalesces to establish the requisite total diversity as between Tang on one side of the
"v." sign and Southeast and Dahl on the other side.
That then leaves the need to consider whether the amount in controversy is greater than
$75,000 (28 U.S.C. § 1332(a)). And on that score Southeast offers up nothing other than its ipse
dixit, which Notice ¶ 10 characterizes as "a good faith belief" that such is the case. But in that
respect Tang's allegations in Paragraph 9 of each of the two counts in his Complaint asserts only
that he "suffered and will continue to suffer injuries of a personal, pecuniary and permanent
nature," while Notice ¶ 9 somehow converts that assertion into an allegation of "serious
continuing injuries" of that type (emphasis added). That attempted conversion is really
impermissible and cannot be accepted as a springboard for an asserted "good faith belief" as to
the amount in controversy.
Accordingly this Court will defer its potential acceptance of the removal of this action
until December 22, 2016. If no satisfactory correction is made by Southeast's counsel by a filing
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by that date (with a paper copy being delivered to this Court's chambers), this Court will be
compelled to remand this action to its state court place of origin for the lack of an appropriate
showing of federal subject matter jurisdiction -- an action called for by 28 U.S.C. § 1447(c).

Date: December 8, 2016

__________________________________________
Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge

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