Southwestern Construction Inc v. C4 Engineering & Integration LLC

THE HONORABLE JOHN C. COUGHENOUR UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 8 AT SEATTLE SOUTHWESTERN CONSTRUCTION INC., a CASE NO. C19-0578-JCC foreign corporation doing business in Washington, MINUTE ORDER Plaintiff, 12 v. C4 ENGINEERING & INTEGRATION LLC, a foreign corporation doing business in Washington et al., Defendants.

The following Minute Order is made by direction of the Court, the Honorable John C.

Coughenour, United States District Judge: This matter comes before the Court sua sponte. District courts have an independent duty to ensure, at any point in a civil action, that they have subject matter jurisdiction over the action.

See Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(h)(3); Grupo Dataflux v. Atlas Global Grp., L.P., 541 U.S. 567, 593 (2004). Plaintiff filed this lawsuit based on the Court’s diversity jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332. (See Dkt. No. 1.)

To establish diversity federal subject matter jurisdiction, “citizenship of each plaintiff [must be] diverse from the citizenship of each defendant.” Caterpillar Inc. v. Lewis, 519 U.S. 61, (1996); see 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a). Plaintiff pleads that it is “a Utah-based construction company.” (Dkt. No. 1 at 2.) Plaintiff pleads that Defendant C4 Engineering & Integration, LLC is “a Utah-based construction company.” (Id.) If Plaintiff and Defendant C4 are citizens of the same state (Utah), the Court lacks jurisdiction over this case under 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a). See Caterpillar Inc, 519 U.S. at 68.

5 Therefore, the Court hereby ORDERS the parties to show cause as to why this case should not be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Briefs shall not exceed five pages in length and shall be filed no later than October 15, 2019. The status conference scheduled for October 8, 2019 is CANCELED.

9 DATED this 7th day of October 2019.

10 William M. McCool Clerk of Court s/Tomas Hernandez 12 Deputy Clerk