Viking Buick GMC, Inc. v. General Motors LLC, 0:14-cv-00309

Viking Buick GMC, Inc. (Viking) sued General Motors, LLC (GM) in federal court asserting violations of Minn. Stat. ch. 80E and invoked diversity jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a)(1).
Viking alleged it is a Minnesota corporation with its principal place of business in Minnesota and alleged that GM is an LLC organized in Delaware with its principal place of business in Michigan.
Viking further alleged that all underlying GM LLC members are domiciled outside Minnesota but did not identify the specific members or their citizenships.
The court noted the plaintiff bears the burden to plead diversity with specificity, including the citizenship of each member of an LLC and any ‘‘sub-members.’’
Because Viking failed to allege the citizenship of each member of GM, the complaint did not establish diversity jurisdiction.
The court gave Viking leave to file an amended complaint by February 12, 2014 alleging the specific citizenship of each party or the action would be dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the complaint adequately pleads diversity jurisdiction	Viking alleged GM is an LLC organized in Delaware, with principal place of business in Michigan, and that members are domiciled outside Minnesota	GM argued (implicitly by challenge of sufficiency) that the complaint must list each LLC member's citizenship; court requires specificity	Court held the allegations were insufficient; Viking must plead the citizenship of each GM member (and sub-members) or case will be dismissed
Whether an LLC's citizenship is determined by its members	Viking treated GM as an LLC with out-of-state members	Legal authority requires an LLC’s citizenship equals that of all its members; sub-members must be identified if present	Court applied precedent: an LLC’s citizenship is the citizenship of each member; plaintiff must identify each member
Whether defective jurisdictional allegations may be amended	Viking did not provide detailed member citizenship in initial complaint	Federal law permits amendment of defective jurisdictional allegations under 28 U.S.C. § 1653	Court granted leave to amend and set deadline for amended complaint
Whether failure to plead specific citizenship warrants dismissal	Viking contended initial pleading sufficed to invoke diversity	Court required specific member citizenships to confirm complete diversity	Court warned it will dismiss for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction if plaintiff fails to amend

Hertz Corp. v. Friend, 559 U.S. 77 (2010) (court’s independent obligation to determine subject-matter jurisdiction)
Barclay Square Props. v. Midwest Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass'n of Minneapolis, 893 F.2d 968 (8th Cir. 1990) (pleadings must allege citizenship of all partners/members to establish diversity)
Walker v. Norwest Corp., 108 F.3d 158 (8th Cir. 1997) (party invoking diversity bears burden of alleging each party’s citizenship)
OnePoint Solutions, LLC v. Borchert, 486 F.3d 342 (8th Cir. 2007) (an LLC’s citizenship is that of its members)
GMAC Commercial Credit LLC v. Dillard Dep’t Stores, Inc., 357 F.3d 827 (8th Cir. 2004) (same rule regarding LLC citizenship)
Delay v. Rosenthal Collins Grp., LLC, 585 F.3d 1003 (6th Cir. 2009) (court must know citizenship of each LLC member, including sub-members)
Rolling Greens MHP, L.P. v. Comcast SCH Holdings L.L.C., 374 F.3d 1020 (11th Cir. 2004) (to allege diversity for unincorporated entities, list citizenships of all members/partners)
D.B. Zwirn Special Opportunities Fund, L.P. v. Mehrotra, 661 F.3d 124 (1st Cir. 2011) (LLC-member citizenship pleading requirements reiterated)
Grupo Dataflux v. Atlas Global Grp., L.P., 541 U.S. 567 (2004) (citizenship must be alleged as of the commencement of the action)
Dubach v. Weitzel, 135 F.3d 590 (8th Cir. 1998) (defective jurisdictional allegations may be amended)