The Top Five: Diversity Jurisdiction

There is so much material to cover regarding jurisdiction in Civil Procedure that it's easy to overlook some of the finer points. Here are 5 potentially testable aspects of jurisdiction that may not stand out when reading the outlines:

(1): Just as citizens of different states will satisfy the diversity requirement for diversity jurisdiction so too will a citizen of the United States and an alien. Jurisdiction is denied, however, if the alien has been admitted to the United States for permanent residence and is domiciled in the same state as the US citizen.

(2): Diversity of citizenship must exist as of the time that the suit is instituted. In other words, diversity need not exist at the time that the cause of action arose, and diversity is not defeated if after commencement of the action a party later becomes a citizen of the same state as his/her opponent.

(3): When determining the citizenship (for purposes of diversity) of a corporation, you must consider both the states in which the corporation is domiciled (can be more than 1), and the state in which the corporation has its principal place of business (can be only 1). A factor to strongly consider when determining where the corporation has its principal place of business is to look to where it has its headquarters. In contrast, for unincorporated associations (such as partnerships), the association is considered for purposes of diversity jurisdiction to be a citizen of each state of which any member is a citizen.

(4): For class action lawsuits, diversity is determined on the basis of the citizenship of the named members of the class only.

(5): The legal representative of the estate of a decedent, an infant, or an incompetent is deemed to have the same citizenship as the decedent, infant, or incompetent for purposes of determining if diversity exists.