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Diversity Jurisdiction Often in federal court the parties to a case are relying upon diversity of the parties to establish jurisdiction . If the court doesn’t have jurisdiction, then the court can’t decide the case. Generally, diversity means the parties are not from the same state. But there are several rules that must be considered. In the AKNO case the court considered diversity when one of the parties is an LLC. The parties litigated for over three years assuming jurisdiction existed– only to have the Court of Appeals inquire as to jurisdiction and potentially setting aside everything that had been done. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals set out guiding principles to consider: First, the party asserting diversity jurisdiction bears the burden of establishing the parties’ citizenships. This means that a plaintiff (or a defendant in a removal action) must fully allege the citizenship of each party. … Alleging that an LLC is organized under the laws of a certain state does nothing to establish its citizenship. Rather, LL Cs have the citizenships of their members and sub-members. Thus, when an LLC is a party in a diversity action, the court must know the citizenship of each member and sub-member…. Finally, litigants and district courts must assure themselves of subject-matter jurisdiction at the earliest possible moment to avoid wasting judicial and party resources. AKNO 1010 Market Street ST. Louis Missouri, LLC v. Nahid Pourtaghi:...