Casey v. Widewaters Hotels, LLC et al

Filing 2

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER : IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that plaintiff shall have until September 21, 2016, to file an amended complaint properly pleading the citizenship of the defendants and establishing subject matter jurisdiction. Failure to comply with this order will result in dismissal of this action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Response to Court due by 9/21/2016.. Signed by District Judge Carol E. Jackson on 9/8/16. (KKS)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI
EASTERN DIVISION
THOMAS M. CASEY,
Plaintiff,
vs.
WIDEWATERS HOTELS, et al.,
Defendants.

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Case No. 4:16-CV-01386-CEJ

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER
This matter is before the Court sua sponte on the question of subject matter
jurisdiction. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(h)(3).
Plaintiff initiated this action on August 29, 2016, invoking diversity
jurisdiction based on diversity of citizenship. See 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a). Plaintiff
alleges that he is a citizen and resident of the State of Illinois. He asserts that
defendants Widewaters Hotels, LLC and Widewaters St. Louis Hotel Management
Company, LLC are Delaware corporations and that The Widewaters Group, Inc. is a
New York corporation. Plaintiff claims that these three entities did business in
Missouri, and “operated, maintained and controlled a hotel” in Missouri. Plaintiff,
however, has not alleged the state of the principal place of business for defendant
The Widewaters Group, Inc. Moreover, plaintiff does not allege the identity and
citizenship of the members of defendants Widewaters Hotels, LLC and Widewaters
St. Louis Hotel Management Company, LLC in his complaint.
It is axiomatic that “diversity jurisdiction in a suit by or against the entity
depends on the citizenship of ‘all [its] members.’” Americold Realty Tr. v. Conagra
Foods, Inc., 136 S. Ct. 1012, 1015 (2016) (quoting Carden v. Arkoma Assoc., 494

U.S. 185, 195 (1990)). Limited liability corporations are subject to that rule; for
diversity jurisdiction purposes LLCs are citizens of each state of which any of their
members are citizens. GMAC Commercial Credit, LLC v. Dillard Dep’t. Stores, Inc.,
357 F.3d 827, 829 (8th Cir. 2004).

The “only exception to this rule is a

corporation’s citizenship.” Id. at 828. A corporation’s citizenship is determined by
(1) every state by which it has been incorporated, and (2) the state where it has its
principal place of business. See 28 U.S.C. § 1332(c)(1).
Therefore, subject matter jurisdiction on the basis of diversity requires the
plaintiff to allege the citizenship of each member of a defendant limited liability
corporation, as well as the principal place of business of a defendant corporation in
his complaint.
Accordingly,
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that plaintiff shall have until September 21,
2016, to file an amended complaint properly pleading the citizenship of the
defendants and establishing subject matter jurisdiction. Failure to comply with
this order will result in dismissal of this action for lack of subject matter
jurisdiction.

___________________________
CAROL E. JACKSON
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
Dated this 8th day of September, 2016.

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