G/R Meeker Street LLC v. Equilon Enterprises LLC

6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 7 AT SEATTLE G/R MEEKER STREET LLC, Plaintiff, Case No. C20-1061RSL v. ORDER OF DISMISSAL EQUILON ENTERPRISES LLC, d/b/a SHELL OIL PRODUCTS US, Defendant.

On July 13, 2020, the Court ordered plaintiff to provide the citizenship of each owner/member of the parties, both of which are limited liability corporations, in order to establish that federal jurisdiction exists. See 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a) (the federal court’s basic diversity jurisdiction extends to “all civil actions where the matter in controversy exceeds . . . $75,000 . . . and is between . . . citizens of different States.”); Johnson v. Columbia Props. Anchorage, LP, 437 F.3d 894, 899 (9th Cir. 2006) (holding that “like a partnership, an LLC is a citizen of every state of which its owners/members are citizens”).

Plaintiff’s response (Dkt. # 7) is insufficient. It states that its two members are also LLCs and that one of defendant’s members is an LLC, but does not provide enough ORDER OF DISMISSAL - 1 information for the Court to ascertain the citizenship of those members.1 Because a federal court is to presume “that a cause lies outside this limited jurisdiction, and the burden of establishing the contrary rests upon the party asserting jurisdiction” (Kokkonen v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of Am., 511 U.S. 375, 377 (1994) (citations omitted)), the Court must dismiss a case in which the burden has not been met for lack of the statutory or constitutional power to adjudicate the case (Pistor v. Garcia, 791 F.3d 1104, 1111 (9th Cir. 2015)).

9 The above-captioned matter is therefore DISMISSED without prejudice.

11 Dated this 18th day of August, 2020.

A Robert S. Lasnik 13 United States District Judge 24 1 The exhibits attached to the declaration of counsel identify two individuals as governors of GRE Meeker Street, LLC, one of the two members of plaintiff G/R Meeker Street LLC, but do not identify the state in which they reside. Dkt. # 8-4 at 1.

ORDER OF DISMISSAL - 2