West Virginia Federal Court Let Slip Past It A Possible Jurisdictional Deficiency

West Virginia Federal Court Let Slip Past It A Possible Jurisdictional Deficiency

      A recent decision from a Federal District Court in West Virginia discussed, with respect to the citizenship of certain LLC defendants, the wrong test for their citizenship. As such, it is open to debate whether the motion to remand that was denied should properly had been denied. Sword v. Strata Mine Services, LLC, Civ. Act. No. 2:17-CV-02163, 2017 WL 4202215 (S.D. W. Va. September 21, 2017).

      Considering a motion to remand that was ultimately denied, the focus being there on the amount in controversy, the court recited that:

On March 31, 2017, the defendants filed a Notice of Removal based on diversity jurisdiction. The defendants allege that there is diversity of citizenship, (sic) because the plaintiff is a citizen and resident of Logan County, West Virginia, and the defendants are incorporated under the laws of Delaware and have their principal place of business in Sandy Springs, Georgia.

      All that may be well and true, but at least two of the defendants in this action are not corporations, but rather limited liability companies. While jurisdiction of incorporation and that in which the principal place of business are maintained are relevant to the citizenship of a corporation, they are entirely irrelevant to the citizenship of an LLC. Rather, an LLC has the citizenship of each of its members. To that extent, the jurisdictional assertions of the defendant LLCs are, it would appear, deficient.