Nevada Jet Ventures, LLC v. ExcelAire LLC

Summary

The United States District Court for the Central District of California dismissed the action without prejudice for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. The court held that the plaintiff failed to establish complete diversity because it did not identify or allege the citizenship of the members of either limited liability company, particularly the defendant.

Holdings

1. A party invoking diversity jurisdiction must affirmatively identify the members of an LLC and allege the citizenship of every member, tracing through membership layers as necessary; allegations concerning an LLC's state of organization or principal place of business are insufficient.
2. When the court determines that it lacks subject-matter jurisdiction, it must dismiss the action; dismissal for the jurisdictional pleading failure was without prejudice.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the court had diversity subject-matter jurisdiction when the complaint failed to identify the members and citizenship of the plaintiff and defendant LLCs.
2. Whether dismissal without prejudice was required when plaintiff could not affirmatively allege the citizenship of the defendant LLC's members.

Disposition

dismissed