Opinion
Case No. 2:16-cv-00540-JCM-NJK
06-07-2016
BANK OF AMERICA, N.A., Plaintiff(s), v. MOUNTAIN GATE HOMEOWNERS' ASSOCIATION, et al., Defendant(s).
ORDER
Pending before the Court are declarations of the members of Hampton & Hampton LLC asserting their citizenship based entirely on their residency. Docket No. 50. Residency and citizenship are not co-extensive:
The diversity jurisdiction statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1332, speaks of citizenship, not of residency. To be a citizen of a state, a natural person must first be a citizen of the United States. Newman-Green, Inc. v. Alfonzo-Larrain, 490 U.S. 826, 828, 109 S.Ct. 2218, 104 L.Ed.2d 893 (1989). The natural person's state citizenship is then determined by her state of domicile, not her state of residence. A person's domicile is her permanent home, where she resides with the intention to remain or to which she intends to return. See Lew v. Moss, 797 F.2d 747, 749 (9th Cir.1986). A person residing in a given state is not necessarily domiciled there, and thus is not necessarily a citizen of that state. See, e.g., Weible v. United States, 244 F.2d 158, 163 (9th Cir.1957) ("Residence is physical, whereas domicile is generally a compound of physical presence plus an intention to make a certain definite place one's permanent abode, though, to be sure, domicile often hangs on the slender thread of intent alone, as for instance where one is a wanderer over the earth. Residence is not an immutable condition of domicile.").Kanter v. Warner-Lambert Co., 265 F.3d 853, 857 (9th Cir. 2001) (emphasis added).
Because the instant declarations improperly conflate residency and citizenship, the Court hereby ORDERS Hampton & Hampton LLC to file amended declarations consistent with Kanter by no later than noon on June 9, 2016.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
DATED: June 7, 2016
/s/_________
NANCY J. KOPPE
United States Magistrate Judge