Conagra Foods v. Americold Logistics, No. 13-3277 (10th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseMultiple plaintiffs, including ConAgra Foods, Inc. and Swift-Eckrich, Inc., brought suit in Kansas state court against Americold Logistics, LLC and Americold Realty Trust (the “Americold entities”). The Americold entities removed the case to the United States District Court for the District of Kansas. As the basis for removal, the Americold entities asserted the parties were completely diverse. No party challenged the propriety of removal; the district court did not address the issue. The merits of the suit were submitted to the district court on cross-motions for summary judgment. The district court granted summary judgment to the Americold entities. ConAgra and Swift-Eckrich appealed. After the parties filed their merits briefs, the Tenth Circuit noted a potential jurisdiction defect in the notice of removal. The issue this case presented was how the citizenship of a trust is determined: by exclusive reference to the citizenship of its trustees? The Tenth Circuit held that citizenship of a trust, just like the citizenship of all other artificial entities except corporations, is determined by examining the citizenship “of all the entity’s members.” That being the case here, the district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the suit underlying this appeal. The Tenth Circuit remanded the matter to the district court to vacate its judgment on the merits and remand the matter to state court.
This opinion or order relates to an opinion or order originally issued on January 27, 2015.
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