Lloyd's of London Syndicate 2987 v. PCL Homes LLC

• Court: District Court, W.D. Washington
• Decided: November 2, 2023
• Docket: 2:23-cv-01497
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

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5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE 9 10 LLOYD’S OF LONDON SYNDICATE CASE NO. 2:23-cv-01497-LK 11 2987, ORDER DIRECTING 12 Plaintiff, COMPLIANCE WITH FEDERAL v. RULE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE 7.1 13 AND LOCAL CIVIL RULE 7.1 PCL HOMES LLC et al., 14 Defendants. 15 16 This matter comes before the Court on PCL Homes’ deficient disclosure statement. 17 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 7.1(a)(1) requires any nongovernmental corporate party to 18 file a statement that either (A) “identifies any parent corporation and any publicly held corporation 19 owning 10% or more of its stock” or (B) “states that there is no such corporation.” And in actions 20 such as this one where jurisdiction is based on diversity under Section 1332(a), a party “must 21 name—and identify the citizenship of—every individual or entity whose citizenship is attributed 22 to that party[.]” Fed. R. Civ. P. 7.1(a)(2). 23 24 1 This district’s Local Civil Rules require more. A nongovernmental party “other than an 2 individual or sole proprietorship” must file a corporate disclosure statement that does one of the 3 following: 4 (1) Identify any parent corporation and any publicly held corporation owning more than 10% of its stock; 5 any member or owner in a joint venture or limited liability corporation 6 (LLC); all partners in a partnership or limited liability partnership (LLP); and any corporate member, if the party is any other unincorporated 7 association; or 8 (2) State that there “is no parent, shareholder, member, or partner to identify as required by LCR 7.1(a)(1).[”] 9 LCR 7.1(a). In diversity actions, “the corporate disclosure statement must also list those states in 10 which the party, owners, partners, or members are citizens.” LCR 7.1(b). Full disclosure is critical 11 to a proper disqualification analysis under 28 U.S.C. § 455, see Dkt. No. 3, and for the Court’s 12 jurisdictional analysis, see Arbaugh v. Y&H Corp., 546 U.S. 500, 514 (2006) (federal courts “have 13 an independent obligation to determine whether subject-matter jurisdiction exists”). 14 PCL Homes is a limited liability corporation, which means it “is a citizen of every state of 15 which its owners/members are citizens” for diversity purposes. Johnson v. Columbia Properties 16 Anchorage, LP, 437 F.3d 894, 899 (9th Cir. 2006). In its disclosure statement, PCL Homes 17 identifies “three governors, Jagraj Singh, Satnam Singh, and Remix Investments, Inc.,” and 18 represents that “Jagraj Singh is a citizen of Washington State, Satnam Singh is a resident of 19 Washington State, and Remix Investments, Inc. is a Washington State Corporation.” Dkt. No. 9 at 20 1. This is insufficient. First, it is unclear whether “governors” is synonymous with “members” for 21 the purposes of Local Civil Rule 7.1. Second, an individual’s state citizenship is determined by his 22 or her state of domicile, not state of residence. Kanter v. Warner-Lambert Co., 265 F.3d 853, 857 23 (9th Cir. 2001); see also Ehrman v. Cox Commc’ns, Inc., 932 F.3d 1223, 1227 (9th Cir. 2019) 24 1 (“[R]esidency is not equivalent to citizenship.”). Thus, Satnam Singh’s Washington residency does 2 not necessarily equate to Washington citizenship. And third, PCL Homes’ representation that 3 Remix Investments, Inc. is a “Washington State Corporation” appears in tension with Plaintiff’s 4 complaint and the Washington Secretary of State’s database, both of which indicate that Remix’s

5 principal place of business is in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. See Dkt. No. 1 at 2; Washington 6 Corporations and Charities Filing System, Corporation Search, https://ccfs.sos.wa.gov/#/Home 7 (last visited Nov. 2, 2023); see also 28 U.S.C. § 1332(c)(1) (“[A] corporation shall be deemed a 8 citizen of every State and foreign state by which it has been incorporated and of the State or foreign 9 state where it has its principal place of business[.]”). 10 PCL Homes shall have seven days from the date of this Order to cure the identified 11 deficiencies by filing an amended corporate disclosure statement. Failure to do so may result in 12 sanctions. 13 14 Dated this 2nd day of November, 2023.

15 A 16 Lauren King United States District Judge 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24