Federal Court Remands Car Accident Case After Defendant Fails to Prove Plaintiff’s Domicile for Diversity Jurisdiction

Maximo Cruz-Guevera filed this action in New York State Supreme Court, Suffolk County, in which he alleged that Vijay Sukhram caused a car accident that injured him and damaged his vehicle. Sukhram removed the case to federal court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1441(a), invoking this court’s diversity jurisdiction. The court then ordered Sukhram to show cause as to why the case should not be remanded for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.

Sukhram’s initial notice of removal asserted that Cruz-Guevara was domiciled in New York. Sukhram based this assertion on Cruz-Guevara’s complaint, which alleged only that Cruz-Guevara was a resident of New York. Sukhram then submitted one page of Cruz-Guevera’s deposition testimony. In it, Cruz-Guevara stated that his current address is in Long Island and that he has lived there for “a year and something. Maybe two years; I don’t know.” The court found that this was inadequate as the excerpt from the deposition revealed nothing about the other factors relevant to domicile.

Although the state court complaint also alleged that Cruz-Guevara owns, and was driving at the time of the accident, a car registered in New York, Sukhram did not submit any evidence as to this allegation.

The court held that Sukhram failed to prove that Cruz-Guevara was domiciled in New York, which is necessary to support the existence of diversity jurisdiction. The case was remanded.