Dental Health Service Inc v. Regulatory Insurance Advisors LLC

• Court: District Court, W.D. Washington
• Decided: December 15, 2020
• Docket: 2:20-cv-01591
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

THE HONORABLE JOHN C. COUGHENOUR 1 2 3 4 5 6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 8 AT SEATTLE 9 DENTAL HEALTH SERVICES, INC., CASE NO. C20-1591-JCC 10 Plaintiff, MINUTE ORDER 11 v. 12 REGULATORY INSURANCE ADVISORS, LLC, 13 Defendant. 14 15 The following Minute Order is made by direction of the Court, the Honorable John C. 16 Coughenour, United States District Judge: 17 This matter comes before the Court sua sponte. Defendant alleges that the Court has 18 jurisdiction over this matter pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a), but Defendant’s notice of removal 19 does not adequately plead jurisdiction. Specifically, while it pleads its own citizenship, it does 20 not plead the citizenship of its members. See NewGen, LLC v. Safe Cig, LLC, 840 F.3d 606, 612 21 (9th Cir. 2016) (“A limited liability company is a citizen of every state of which its 22 owners/members are citizens, not the state in which it was formed or does business.”) (internal 23 citation omitted); see also Dart Cherokee Basin Operating Co., LLC v. Owens, 574 U.S. 81, 89 24 (2014) (removal notice must include plausible allegations to demonstrate satisfaction of 25 jurisdictional requirements). Accordingly, Defendant must plead the citizenship of its members 26 1 to demonstrate complete diversity with Plaintiff. However, “[d]efective jurisdictional allegations 2 are not fatal.” NewGen, LLC, 840 F.3d at 612. The Court “may permit parties to amend defective 3 allegations of jurisdiction at any stage in the proceedings.” Id.; see 28 U.S.C. § 1653. 4 Accordingly, the Court ORDERS Defendant to file an amended notice of removal 5 demonstrating that this Court has jurisdiction to hear this matter pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332 by 6 no later than December 29, 2020. Absent this Court’s receipt of the amended notice described 7 above, the Court will remand the matter to the King County Superior Court. The Clerk is 8 DIRECTED to renote Defendant’s motion to compel arbitration and stay case (Dkt. No. 9) to 9 December 29, 2020. 10 DATED this 15th day of December 2020. 11 William M. McCool Clerk of Court 12 s/Paula McNabb 13 Deputy Clerk 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26