SDNY Judge Dismisses Comcast Suit vs. MaxLinear With Leave to Replead

Federal law requires a dismissal of Comcast’s complaint against MaxLinear for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction with leave to replead, said an order signed Thursday by U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein for Southern New York in Manhattan. Comcast sued MaxLinear May 26 to block it from walking away from its “contractual obligations” to supply chips for millions of broadband gateways used to provide internet service to Comcast customers (see 2305300045). For diversity purposes, an LLC is a citizen of every state in which its partners, or members, are citizens, said the order. This requires that all members of a plaintiff LLC be domiciled in different states than all members of a defendant LLC, it said. The diversity of all members, moreover, “must be specifically pled in the complaint,” it said. Here, Comcast “failed to make the appropriate assertions as to the citizenship of the LLCs’ members, therefore rendering the statement of jurisdiction insufficient,” it said. Hellerstein’s order dismissing Comcast’s complaint without prejudice instructed Comcast to file an amended complaint within 30 days, “which shall comport with the rules for pleading diversity in a case involving an LLC,” it said.