Yokeno v. Sekiguchi, No. 11-17196 (9th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff filed suit against defendants in the Superior Court of Guam, asserting claims arising from alleged breach of fiduciary duty in the course of the parties' several business ventures. Defendants removed to the District Court of Guam based on diversity jurisdiction. Plaintiff is an alien admitted to the United States for permanent residence, living in Guam. Defendant Lai, a British Overseas Citizen, and Defendant Sekiguchi, a Japanese citizen, both live in Japan. The district court granted summary judgment on the merits in favor of defendants and plaintiff appealed, contesting subject matter jurisdiction for the first time. Whether or not Congress intended to confer jurisdiction in cases like this one by supplying constitutionally required minimal diversity through deemed citizenship, the deeming clause purported to do so. The court concluded, however, that the Organic Act of Guam, 48 U.S.C. 1421-1421k-1, precluded it from deciding the merits of the dispute between aliens because it conferred diversity jurisdiction upon the District Court of Guam reaching only as far as the diversity jurisdiction afforded to Article III courts. Because the Constitution does not supply diversity jurisdiction to Article III courts in suits between aliens, the jurisdiction afforded the federal court in Guam must also be so limited. Accordingly, the court vacated and remanded, concluding that both the court and the District Court of Guam lacked jurisdiction to decide this dispute exclusively between aliens.
Court Description: Jurisdiction. The panel held that this court and the District Court of Guam lacked jurisdiction to decide this case exclusively between aliens, and vacated the district court’s summary judgment in favor of Sawako Sekiguchi and Emil Lai and remanded with instructions to remand the case to the Superior Court of Guam. Plaintiff Matao Yokeno is an alien admitted to the United States for permanent residence, living in Guam. Defendants Lai, a British Overseas Citizen, and Sekiguchi, a Japanese citizen, both live in Japan, and they removed the case to the District Court of Guam based on diversity of citizenship. The Organic Act of Guam conferred upon the District Court of Guam the same diversity jurisdiction afforded to Article III courts. From May 18, 1989 to January 5, 2012, the “deeming clause” amended 28 U.S.C. § 1332 to provide that for diversity jurisdiction “an alien admitted to the United States for permanent residence shall be deemed a citizen of the State in which such alien is domiciled.” This case was removed to the District Court of Guam in 2011. The panel held that the deeming clause purported to confer jurisdiction in cases such as this one by supplying constitutionally required minimal diversity through deemed citizenship. The panel held, however, that the Organic Act precluded the court from deciding the merits of this dispute between aliens because the Organic Act conferred diversity jurisdiction upon the District Court of Guam reaching only as far as the diversity jurisdiction afforded to Article III courts. The panel concluded that because the U.S. Constitution did not supply diversity jurisdiction to Article III courts in suits between aliens, the jurisdiction afforded to the federal court in Guam must also, under the Organic Act, be so limited.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.