CELINA INSURANCE GROUP v. LARRY AND CAROL YELEY FAMILY LIMITED PARTNERSHIP

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF INDIANA INDIANAPOLIS DIVISION

CELINA INSURANCE GROUP, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) v. ) No. 1:22-cv-00865-JPH-TAB ) LARRY AND CAROL YELEY FAMILY ) LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, ) LARRY E YELEY, ) ) Defendants. )

ORDER ON JURISDICTION Plaintiff, Celina Insurance Group, has filed a complaint alleging that this Court has diversity jurisdiction over this matter. Dkt. 1 at 1. For the Court to have diversity jurisdiction, the amount in controversy must exceed $75,000, exclusive of interest and costs, and the litigation must be between citizens of different states. 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a). The citizenship of a partnership is "the citizenship of every partner, limited as well as general," Dvorak v. Granite Creek GP Flexcap I, LLC, 908 F.3d 248, 250 (7th Cir. 2018), so parties must "work back through the ownership structure until [reaching] either individual human beings or a formal corporation with a state of incorporation and a state of principal place of business," Baez-Sanchez v. Sessions, 862 F.3d 638, 641 (7th Cir. 2017). Here, Celina Insurance alleges that the parties are diverse because Defendant Larry and Carol Yeley Family Limited Partnership "is a citizen of Indiana." Dkt. 1 at 3. That is insufficient because, as an L.P., the partnership's citizenship is based on the citizenship of its partners, which the notice of removal does not identify. Counsel has an obligation to analyze subject-matter jurisdiction, Heinen v. Northrop Grumman Corp., 671 F.3d 669, 670 (7th Cir. 2012), and "[a] federal court must assure itself of subject matter jurisdiction in every case," Boim v. American Muslims for Palestine, 9 F.4th 545, 551-52 (7th Cir. 2021). The Court's obligation includes knowing the details of the underlying jurisdictional allegations. See Evergreen Square of Cudahy v. Wis. Hous. and Econ. Dev. Auth., 776 F.3d 463, 465 (7th Cir. 2015) ("[T]he parties' united front is irrelevant since the parties cannot confer subject-matter jurisdiction by agreement... and federal courts are obligated to inquire into the existence of jurisdiction sua sponte."). Therefore, the Court ORDERS Celina Insurance to file a jurisdictional statement by June 10, 2022, analyzing the citizenship of the defendant partnership. SO ORDERED. Date: 5/5/2022

James Patrick Hanlon United States District Judge Southern District of Indiana Distribution: Anna Muehling Mallon PAGANELLI LAW GROUP amallon@paganelligroup.com