Highland Holdings Inc v. KRRJ Equipment Company LLC

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE HIGHLAND HOLDINGS, INC., CASE NO. 2:23-cv-01462-LK Plaintiff, ORDER TO FILE AMENDED 12 v. CORPORATE DISCLOSURE STATEMENT 13 KRRJ EQUIPMENT COMPANY, LLC, 14 Defendant.

16 This matter comes before the Court on the parties’ deficient corporate and diversity disclosure statements. Dkt. Nos. 3, 12.

18 Plaintiff Highland Holdings, Inc. has alleged that the Court has diversity jurisdiction over this case. Dkt. No. 1 at 2. Thus, Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 7.1 and Local Civil Rule 7.1 require the parties to file disclosure statements indicating (among other things) their citizenship(s) for purposes of 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a)(2).

22 Highland Holdings’ disclosure statement states that “[a]ll owners of the corporation are citizens of the state of Washington.” Dkt. No. 3 at 1. This is the basis of citizenship for a limited liability company, not a corporation. See Lloyd's of London Syndicate 2987 v. PCL Homes LLC, No. 2:23-CV-01497-LK, 2023 WL 7212554, at *1 (W.D. Wash. Nov. 2, 2023).

3 For its part, Defendant KRRJ Equipment Company, LLC’s corporate disclosure statement states that “Defendant has no parent corporation and no publicly held corporation owns 10% or more of its stock. As such, there is no parent corporation, shareholder, member or partner to identify as required by LCR 7.1(a)(1).” Dkt. No. 12 at 1. This is wrong. The rules require parties in diversity cases like this to identify all members of an LLC and the citizenship of those members.

8 See LCR 7.1(a)(1), (b); see also Fed. R. Civ. P. 7.1(a)(2)(A).

9 The parties are accordingly ORDERED to file amended corporate and diversity disclosure statements no later than December 26, 2023, complying with Local Civil Rule 7.1 and Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 7.1. Failure to do so may result in sanctions.

13 Dated this 19th day of December, 2023.

14 A 15 Lauren King United States District Judge