Miguel Del Cid Guerra v. Kamala Harris

Opinion

8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

9 CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

10 MIGUEL DEL CID GUERRA, Case No. 2:23-cv-05522-WLH 11 Plaintiff, 12 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE 13 v. R JUE RG IA SR DD ICIN TIG O S NU BJECT MATTER

14 KAMALA HARRIS, and JANE DOES,

15 Defendants. 16

19 The Court sets an Order to Show Cause regarding Subject Matter Jurisdiction 20 on September 29, 2023, at 1:00 p.m. District courts have diversity jurisdiction over a 21 case where, among other things, the amount in controversy exceeds the sum or value 22 of $75,000. 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a). In the Complaint, Plaintiff Miguel Del Cid Guerra 23 claims that he sustained injuries to the neck, ribs and hand after Defendant Kamala 24 Harris allegedly hit him with a bat. (Complaint, Docket No. 1 at 4). The Complaint 25 alleges damages of $10,000,000 for "Medical Bills....neck injuries, rib fractures, and a 26 broken hand." (Id.). Based on this general allegation, the Court is not convinced the 27 amount-in-controversy requirement is met. See, e.g., Diefenthal v. C.A.B., 681 F.2d 28 1039, 1052 (5th Cir. 1982) (“While a federal court must of course give due credit to 1 | the good faith claims of the plaintiff, a court would be remiss in its obligations if it 2 | accepted every claim of damages at face value, no matter how trivial the underlying 3 | injury.”); Christensen v. Nw. Airlines, Inc., 633 F.2d 529, 530-31 (9th Cir. 1980) 4 | (affirming district court's finding that plaintiff's damages claim was not made in good 5 | faith but only for the purpose of obtaining federal court jurisdiction and that the injury 6 | was too small to establish requisite amount of damages); PhotoThera, Inc. v. Own, 7 | No. 07CV490, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 89053, *19-23 & n.4 (S.D. Cal. Dec. 4, 2007) 8 || (dismissing claims where jurisdictional minimum allegations unsupported by any 9 || factual allegations). Defendant must respond, in writing, by September 1, 2023, with 10 | evidence or specific allegations that the amount-in-controversy requirement is met. 11 12 IT IS SO ORDERED. 13 sya 14 | Dated: July 31, 2023 - | ae Lo J. HON. WESLEYC. HSU 15 UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28