Talwar v. Copperstate Farms LLC ( 2021 )

1 WO 2 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA 8 9 Pankaj Talwar, No. CV-21-01816-PHX-JAT 10 Plaintiff, ORDER 11 v. 12 Copperstate Farms LLC, et al., 13 Defendants. 14 15 Federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction. As a result, federal courts can hear 16 only those cases that the Constitution and Congress have authorized them to adjudicate; 17 namely, cases involving diversity of citizenship, a federal question, or cases to which the 18 United States is a party. Kokkonen v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of Am., 511 U.S. 375, 377 19 (1994). The party asserting jurisdiction bears the burden of proving jurisdiction. Id. 20 “Inquiring whether the court has jurisdiction is a federal judge’s first duty in every case.” 21 Belleville Catering Co. v. Champaign Market Place, L.L.C., 350 F.3d 691, 693 (7th Cir. 22 2003). 23 In this case, because Plaintiff filed suit in federal district court, Plaintiff must show 24 that the federal court is authorized to hear the case. Plaintiff alleges jurisdiction based on 25 diversity of citizenship. However, the complaint fails to sufficiently plead diversity 26 jurisdiction. See 28 U.S.C. § 1332; Johnson v. Columbia Properties Anchorage, L.P., 437 27 F.3d 894, 899 (9th Cir. 2006) (discussing the citizenship of a limited liability company). To 28 properly plead diversity jurisdiction, a complaint must list the citizenship of every member || of any party that is a limited partnership or limited liability company. NewGen, LLC v. 2\| Safe Cig, LLC, 840 F.3d 606, 611 (9th Cir. 2016). Here, Plaintiff states that Defendants || are limited liability companies, but does not plead the citizenship of Defendants’ members. 4 Thus, Plaintiff will be required to supplement the complaint to properly allege 5 || federal subject matter jurisdiction. If Plaintiff fails to file the required supplement, or if 6|| Plaintiff files a supplement that fails to plead sufficient facts to establish federal subject || matter jurisdiction, this case will be dismissed without prejudice for lack of jurisdiction. 8 Based on the foregoing, 9 IT IS ORDERED that Plaintiff must file the supplement required herein by || November 8, 2021. 11 Dated this 1st day of November, 2021. 12 13 i C 14 James A. Teilborg 15 Senior United States District Judge 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 -2-