Brown v. USAA Casualty Insurance

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 6 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE LOUISE BROWN, ET AL., CASE NO. 3:23-cv-05503-JHC Plaintiffs, ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE v. USAA CASUALTY INSURANCE, ET AL., Defendants.

14 Defendant USAA Casualty Insurance removed this action based on diversity jurisdiction.

15 Dkt. # 1. The notice of removal states that “Plaintiffs are residents of Washington State,” while “USAA is a Texas corporation with headquarters located in San Antonio, Texas.” Id. at 2 (emphasis added). But diversity jurisdiction is based on the citizenship of the parties, not their residences. See Kanter v. Warner-Lambert Co., 265 F.3d 853, 857 (9th Cir. 2001) (“Plaintiffs’ complaint and Pfizer’s notice of removal both state that Plaintiffs were ‘residents’ of California.

20 But the diversity jurisdiction statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1332, speaks of citizenship, not of residency.”).

21 While the two concepts often overlap, they are not coextensive. See id. (“A person residing in a given state is not necessarily domiciled there, and thus is not necessarily a citizen of that state.”). l USAA Casualty Insurance is ORDERED to show cause within 14 days regarding this Court’s jurisdiction. USAA should clarify whether it asserts that Plaintiffs are citizens of Washington state. USAA’s response shall not exceed two (2) pages.

4 If the Court is satisfied that it has jurisdiction based on USAA’s response, the Court will 5 issue a separate order confirming such a conclusion.

6 Dated this 16th day of August, 2023.

vha. 4. Claw Joke 4, 9 John H. Chun United States District Judge 1]