Adams v. Google LLC

Summary

The United States District Court for the Northern District of California ordered Google LLC to show cause why removal from Santa Clara County Superior Court was proper and why federal subject matter jurisdiction existed. The court noted that Google had not identified the citizenship of its LLC members and advised that removal could also violate the local defendant rule if Google is a California citizen.

Holdings

1. For diversity-of-citizenship purposes, an LLC is a citizen of every state of which its owners or members are citizens. Because Google did not provide citizenship information for each owner or member, it had not established subject matter jurisdiction.
2. If Google is a California citizen, removal based on diversity jurisdiction may be procedurally improper under the local-defendant rule because a defendant that is a citizen of the state in which the action was brought may not remove on that basis. A plaintiff must raise that procedural defect within 30 days.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Google established federal subject matter jurisdiction through diversity of citizenship under 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a)(1).
2. Whether the removal may be procedurally defective under the local-defendant rule if Google is a citizen of California.
3. Whether Adams must move to remand within 30 days to raise a violation of the local-defendant rule.

Disposition

other