Opinion
No. 02 C 1885
March 27, 2002
MEMORANDUM ORDER
By way of an attempted response to this Court's brief March 15, 2002 memorandum order identifying a potential subject matter jurisdictional problem, counsel for Delaware Clothing Co., Inc. ("Delaware") has timely filed a First Amended Complaint ("FAC") that contains expanded allegations as to the two named defendants. Because that filing has unfortunately not done the job, this Court is compelled to try again.
What FAC ¶ 2 now says as to Ohio Casualty Group of Insurance Companies ("Group") is just this:
The Ohio Casualty Group of Insurance Companies is an Ohio Registered Trade Name whose principal place of business is in the State of Ohio.
That allegation is singularly uninformative. Needless to say, a trade name is not a suable entity — but the party or parties encompassed within the "group" doing business under such a trade nameare (and are in fact the real parties in interest for purposes of Fed.R.Civ. p. 17(a)). Because the FAC does not provide the necessary answers, Delaware's counsel will be given just one more chance to tender an appropriate amendment to FAC 2 to this Court's chambers on or before April 5, 2002, failing which this Court will be constrained to dismiss this action for lack of the required showing of subject matter jurisdiction.
Indeed, just how an intangible property interest such as a trade name can have a "principal place of business" is a mystery in itself.