EDWARDS
v.
CENTURION MANAGED CARE OF FLORIDA, LLC

M.D. Fla. | 2020-09-25
No. 3:20-cv-1054
District Court, M.D. Florida (2020)

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Holding

The court held that the defendant's notice of removal failed to sufficiently allege diversity jurisdiction because it did not properly plead the citizenship of the plaintiff. The court ordered the defendant to provide additional information to establish jurisdiction.


Facts & Procedural History

The defendant removed a state court case to federal court, asserting diversity jurisdiction. The defendant's notice of removal alleged the plaintiff r…

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Opinion of the Court

must be diverse from all defendants.” Univ. of S. Ala., 168 F. 3d at 412. To establish diversity over a natural person, a party must include allegations of the person’s citizenship, not where he or she resides. Taylor, 30 F. 3d at 1367. A natural person’s citizenship is determined by his or her “domicile,” or “the place of his true, fixed, and permanent home and principal establishment. . .to which he has the intention of returning whenever he is absent therefrom.” McCormick, 293 F. 3d at 1257-58 (quotation and citation omitted). “Citizenship, not residence, is the key fact that must be alleged in the complaint to establish citizenship for a natural person.” Taylor, 30 F. 3d at 1367; Miss. Band of Choctaw Indians v. Holyfield, 490 U.S. 30, 48 (1989) (“‘Domicile’ is not necessarily synonymous with ‘residence[.]”). Thus, the Notice fails to present allegations sufficient to establish that the parties are diverse from each other. Without additional information regarding the citizenship of the Plaintiff, the allegations presently before the Court are insufficient to invoke the Court’s subject matter jurisdiction over this action.’ Accordingly, it is ORDERED: Defendant Centurion Managed Care of Florida, LLC, shall have until October 7, 2020, to provide the Court with sufficient information so that it can determine whether it has diversity jurisdiction over this action. DONE AND ORDERED at Jacksonville, Florida on September 25, 2020.

dh Mead be United States District Judge

Ic27 Copies to: Counsel of Record

Footnotes
1 Indeed, carefully ascertaining the citizenship of the parties and whether the Court has subject matter jurisdiction over this action is more than just an academic exercise, as is evident from two Eleventh Circuit cases decided in 2017. See Thermoset Corp. v. Bldg. Materials Corp of Am., 849 F. 3d 1313, 1316-1317 (11th Cir. Mar. 2, 2017) (vacating summary judgment order after three years of litigation where court determined on appeal that the pleadings below had not sufficiently alleged the citizenship of a defendant limited liability company, and upon further inquiry, found that the defendant limited liability company had a non-diverse member); see also Purchasing Power, LLC v. Bluestem Brands, Inc., 851 F. 3d 1218, 1222, 1228 (11th Cir. Mar. 20, 2017) (discussing whether sanctions were warranted in a case where summary judgment was reversed on appeal after the appellate court discovered that the pleadings did not sufficiently allege the citizenship of the plaintiff LLC, leading to the realization that there was no diversity jurisdiction) (“While the requirements of diversity jurisdiction in this scenario are complicated, they are the law. No party in this case acted with bad intentions, but the result was a colossal waste of time and effort. We trust that the damage done to the parties’ credibility, finances, and time is enough of a sanction to curb their conduct and to serve as a warning to future diversity jurisdiction litigants. In the end, when the parties do not do their part, the burden falls on the courts to make sure parties satisfy the requirements of diversity jurisdiction. We must be vigilant in forcing parties to meet the unfortunate demands of diversity jurisdiction in the 21st century.”).

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