Opinion
CV-21-01497-PHX-JAT
03-30-2023
Mountains of Spices LLC, Plaintiff, v. Sara Lihong Wei Lafrenz, et al., Defendants.
ORDER
James A. Teilborg Senior United States District Judge
On September 2, 2021, and September 24, 2021, this Court required Plaintiff to file supplements to the complaint establishing federal subject matter jurisdiction. (Doc. 8 and 10). Plaintiff filed those supplements. (Docs. 9 and 42).
Recently, the Court has been called upon to rule on several outstanding issues in this case including a motion for default judgment, a motion to amend the complaint, and three separate discovery disputes. In particular, the details revealed in the discovery disputes regarding the parties to this case have again caused the Court to question its jurisdiction.
Specifically, the facts underlying the discovery disputes suggest that all parties have a close relationship either now or historically to a foreign country. This Court does not have diversity jurisdiction over exclusively foreign nationals. See Faysound Ltd. v. United Coconut Chems., 878 F.2d 290, 294 (9th Cir. 1989) (citing Cheng v. Boeing Co., 708 F.2d 1406, 1412 (9th Cir. 1983) (“Diversity jurisdiction does not encompass foreign plaintiffs suing foreign defendants.”); Nike, Inc. v. Comercial Iberica de Exclusivas Deportivas, S.A., 20 F.3d 987, 990-91 (9th Cir. 1994) (one United States citizen plaintiff or defendant will not establish diversity if there is a foreign plaintiff and a foreign defendant).
The Court has again reviewed the second supplement regarding jurisdiction (Doc. 42) which claims, for example, that the sole member of Plaintiff is a citizen of New York. However, the supplement never claims that that person is a citizen of the United States. Further, the person's affidavit does not state that the person votes in New York or elsewhere in the United States. (Doc. 42-3 at 103-104). Thus, this Court will again inquire into its jurisdiction. Therefore, IT IS ORDERED that by April 13, 2023, Plaintiff must file a supplement to the second amended complaint stating the country of citizenship of all parties to this case so this Court may assess federal subject matter jurisdiction.