Dist. Ct. granted plaintiff-Chinese entity’s motion for summary judgment against defendant-U.S. citizen in action seeking enforcement of Chinese court’s entry of default judgment in contract claim filed by plaintiff against defendant. Ct. of Appeals, though, remanded matter back to Dist. Ct. for new determination of its diversity jurisdiction in matter, where record failed to contain competent proof regarding plaintiff’s citizenship and citizenship of one of plaintiff’s partners. Specifically, while employee of plaintiff generated declaration that plaintiff was domiciled in Chinese province, said declaration was insufficient to establish diversity jurisdiction, since partnerships do not have domiciles for purposes of diversity jurisdiction. Moreover, there was no evidence in record that established citizenship of each of plaintiff’s four Chinese LLC partners. Also, remand was required to provide more detailed evidence to: (1) support plaintiff’s contention that all four of instant Chinese LLCs should be treated as corporations for purposes of obtaining diversity jurisdiction; and (2) clarify whether one LLC could qualify as “foreign state” due to its partial ownership by Chinese state-owned entity.
Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Diversity Jurisdiction