Michael Morse v. The Hertz Corporation, et al.

Summary

The United States District Court for the Central District of California ordered Plaintiff Michael Morse to show cause why the action should not be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The court found that Plaintiff had not adequately alleged the citizenship of Defendant Mirra Simpson or the members of the limited liability company defendants, preventing the court from determining whether complete diversity existed under 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a). Plaintiff was ordered to respond by October 24, 2025, and the deadline for Defendants to respond to the Complaint was continued to October 31, 2025.

Holdings

1. A plaintiff invoking federal diversity jurisdiction must affirmatively and distinctly allege the facts essential to federal jurisdiction, including facts establishing that all plaintiffs are citizens of different states than all defendants and that the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000.
2. To plead the citizenship of a limited liability company adequately for diversity purposes, the plaintiff must identify each member and allege the citizenship of each member; identifying the LLC's state of organization or principal executive offices is insufficient.
3. The complaint did not establish that complete diversity exists because it omitted Simpson's citizenship and failed to identify the members and citizenship of Hertz Vehicles and Thrifty; the court therefore could not determine whether it possessed subject matter jurisdiction.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the complaint adequately alleged complete diversity of citizenship under 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a).
2. Whether the complaint adequately alleged the citizenship of the individual defendant and the members of the limited liability company defendants so that the court could determine whether subject matter jurisdiction exists.

Disposition

other