MMG Insurance Company v. Samsung Electronics America, Inc.

Filing 15

PROCEDURAL ORDER re 14 Motion for Joinder Assented to Motion to Join Best Buy Co., Inc. as an Additional Party Defendant. Plaintiff to file proposed amended complaint as outlined within ten days of this order. So Ordered by Chief Judge Joseph N. Laplante.(jb)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
DISTRICT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
MMG Insurance Company,
as subrogee of Marc Berthiume
v.

Civil No. 11-cv-430-JL

Samsung Electronics
America, Inc.
PROCEDURAL ORDER
The plaintiff in this products liability action, MMG
Insurance Company has filed a “motion to join Best Buy Co., Inc.
as an additional party-defendant.”

See Fed. R. Civ. P. 20(a)(1).

MMG’s motion, however, is not accompanied by a new version of the
complaint in this action, amended to include one or more claims
against the proposed additional defendant, cf. L.R. 15.1(a), but
by a copy of the writ that MMG has filed against the proposed
additional defendant in the Hillsborough County Superior Court.
More importantly, while the writ describes “Best Buy Co., Inc.”
as a corporation “with a place of business” at an address in
Minnesota, neither the writ nor the motion for joinder states
either its state of incorporation nor its principal place of
business.
The sole basis of this court’s jurisdiction over this
action is diversity:

MMG is a Maine corporation with its

principal place of business in that state, while the original
defendant, Samsung Electronics America, Inc., is a New York

corporation with its principal place of business in New Jersey,
and MMG brings claims under state law only.
§ 1332(a)(1).

See 28 U.S.C.

So this court lacks jurisdiction over MMG’s claim

against “Best Buy Co., Inc.” unless it, too, has a different
state of incorporation and principal place of business from the
plaintiff, MMG.

See id. § 1367(b).

(The court notes that,

according to the on-line records of the Minnesota Secretary of
State, there is no company known as “Best Buy Co., Inc.”
incorporated there.)
Thus, to enable this court to determine whether it would
still have jurisdiction over this action if “Best Buy Co., Inc.”
is added as a defendant, MMG shall file, within ten days of the
date of this order, a proposed amended complaint alleging the
state of incorporation and principal place of business of “Best
Buy Co., Inc.”

See 28 U.S.C. § 1332(c)(1).

The amended

complaint shall also set forth MMG’s claims against that party.
If MMG fails to make that filing by the appointed deadline, its
motion to join the additional defendant will be denied.
SO ORDERED.
____________________________
Joseph N. Laplante
United States District Judge
Dated: May 9, 2012
cc: Robert W. Upton, II, Esq.
Thomas DeMicco, Esq.
Christopher P. Flanagan, Esq.
Kristyn Dery Kaupas, Esq.
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