Opinion
No. 11 C 1121.
May 12, 2011
MEMORANDUM ORDER
Few things would seem quite so obvious as the proposition that the relevant facts in a federal lawsuit grounded in "diversity of citizenship" are the states of citizenship of the litigants, rather than their places of residence (something that most often, though not invariably, coincides with citizenship). Yet parties on both sides of the "v." sign have had their problems with that self-defining proposition — hence this memorandum order.
With two of the defendants being limited liability companies, as to which the relevant citizenship is that of each company's members, this Court requested information on that score from their counsel. But what the responses have shown instead is (1) as to Aquawood, LLC "its sole member is Chan Koon Ying, who is a resident of China," and (2) as to Izzy Holdings, LLC, it has two members, both individuals who "are currently residents of China."
Those assertions stem from supplemental disclosure statements tendered by the same lawyer who represents each of them, but the file is still lacking the essential citizenship information. Accordingly counsel for the two limited liability companies is ordered to file a further supplemental submission on or before May 23, 2011 identifying the relevant states of citizenship.