Case: 24-30173            Document: 100-1           Page: 1      Date Filed: 01/21/2025




            United States Court of Appeals
                 for the Fifth Circuit                                          United States Court of Appeals
                                                                                         Fifth Circuit

                                    ____________                                       FILED
                                                                                 January 21, 2025
                                      No. 24-30173                                 Lyle W. Cayce
                                    ____________                                        Clerk

First Assembly of God Church Incorporated of
Leesville Louisiana,

                                                                      Plaintiff—Appellee,

                                           versus

Church Mutual Insurance Company, S.I.,

                                             Defendant—Appellant.
                    ______________________________

                    Appeal from the United States District Court
                       for the Western District of Louisiana
                              USDC No. 2:21-CV-378
                    ______________________________

Before Dennis, Haynes, and Ramirez, Circuit Judges.
Per Curiam: *
        This case involves an insurance dispute that arose in the wake of
Hurricane Laura. It went to trial, and the jury reached a verdict in favor of
the plaintiff. But all along, there was a problem with the jurisdictional
pleadings below. 1 Before reaching the merits of this appeal, we “are duty-

        _____________________
        *
            This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5.
        1
         We note too that the plaintiff’s statement of jurisdiction in its appellate brief does
not provide a basis for the district court’s jurisdiction.
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                                  No. 24-30173


bound to examine the basis of subject matter jurisdiction sua sponte.” Union
Planters Bank Nat’l Ass’n v. Salih, 

 (5th Cir. 2004).
       The operative complaint in this case alleges subject matter jurisdiction
based on the diversity of the two corporate parties but does not adequately
plead corporate citizenship. The diversity statute says that a corporation
“shall be deemed to be a citizen of every State and foreign state by which it
has been incorporated and of the State or foreign state where it has its
principal place of business.” 

. But the operative complaint
alleges only the “domicile” of each corporate party. That is not enough.
MidCap Media Fin., LLC v. Pathway Data, Inc., 

 (5th Cir.
2019) (“[A]llegations regarding the citizenship of a corporation must set out
the principal place of business of the corporation as well as the state of its
incorporation.” (quotation omitted)).
       Fortunately, 

 “allows us to overlook a party’s failure
to plead diversity if a party can identify allegations and evidence in the record
demonstrating diversity.” 

 (cleaned up) (quotation omitted). We
therefore sent a letter to the parties asking them to do so. The parties’
responses represent that they are indeed diverse but fail to identify
allegations and evidence in the record sufficient to demonstrate diversity. At
oral argument, both parties again represented that they are diverse but
acknowledged that the jurisdictional pleadings may be insufficient.
       “[W]here jurisdiction is not clear from the record, but there is . . .
reason to believe that jurisdiction exists,” remand to the district court for
amendment of the jurisdictional allegations and supplementation of the
record is appropriate. Molett v. Penrod Drilling Co., 

 (5th
Cir. 1989) (per curiam); see 

. That is the situation here.
       Accordingly, we ORDER a limited remand to the district court to
determine whether diversity jurisdiction exists.         If the district court




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                                   No. 24-30173


concludes that it has diversity jurisdiction, the Clerk of the district court shall
promptly supplement the appellate record with copies of the new filings
below and the district court’s opinion on jurisdiction and forward the
supplemental record to this court. Upon return to this court, no further
briefing will be necessary. The case will be returned to this panel for
disposition on the merits. If the district court concludes that it lacks
jurisdiction, then it must vacate its judgment and dismiss the case.
LIMITED REMAND.




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