Ohio Security Insurance Company v. Black Lake Quarry LLC

• Court: District Court, W.D. Washington
• Decided: November 18, 2020
• Docket: 3:20-cv-06114
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 7 AT SEATTLE 8 OHIO SECURITY INSURANCE COMPANY, et al., 9 Plaintiffs, Case No. C20-6114RSL 10 v. ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE 11 BLACK LAKE QUARRY, LLC, et al., 12 Defendants. 13 14 15 This matter comes before the Court sua sponte. On November 11, 2020, plaintiffs 16 filed this action in federal court alleging that the Court has jurisdiction based on the 17 diversity of citizenship of the parties. See 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a) (establishing that the 18 federal court’s basic diversity jurisdiction extends to “all civil actions where the matter in 19 controversy exceeds . . . $75,000 . . . and is between . . . citizens of different States.”). 20 “For a case to qualify for federal jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a), there must be 21 complete diversity of citizenship between the parties opposed in interest.” Kuntz v. Lamar 22 Corp., 385 F.3d 1177, 1181 (9th Cir. 2004) (internal citation omitted). In examining 23 whether complete diversity is present, the citizenship of a limited liability company is 24 determined by examining the citizenship of the owners/members. See Johnson v. 25 26 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE - 1 1 Columbia Props. Anchorage, LP, 437 F.3d 894, 899 (9th Cir. 2006) (holding that “like a 2 partnership, an LLC is a citizen of every state of which its owners/members are citizens”). 3 Plaintiffs have not alleged the citizenship of each owner/member of defendants 4 Black Lake Quarry, LLC, or BLR LLC, and their conclusory allegation that the plaintiffs 5 are citizens of different states than all defendants is insufficient to meet its burden of 6 establishing the basis of the Court’s jurisdiction. See Indus. Tectonics, Inc. v. Aero Alloy, 7 912 F.2d 1090, 1092 (9th Cir. 1990) (“The party asserting jurisdiction has the burden of 8 proving all jurisdictional facts”); Fed R. Civ. P. 12(h)(3) (“If the Court determines at any 9 time that it lacks subject-matter jurisdiction, the court must dismiss the action”). As a 10 result, plaintiff is ORDERED TO SHOW CAUSE why the Court should not dismiss this 11 action pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1) by providing the Court with the citizenship of 12 all of the owners/members of Black Lake Quarry, LLC, and BLR LLC at the time the 13 complaint was filed, by December 4, 2020. The Clerk of the Court is directed to place this 14 order to show cause on the Court’s calendar for that date. 15 16 Dated this 18th day of November, 2020. 17 Robert S. Lasnik 18 United States District Judge 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE - 2