Vicky Patterson v. Lake City Nursing and Rehabilitation, LLC

── Vicky Patterson v. Lake City Nursing and Rehabilitation, LLC ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Date: April 29, 2026 Category: REM USCA11 Case: 25-13869 Document: 25-2 Date Filed: 04/29/2026 Page: 1 of 4 In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit ____________________ No. 25-13869 ____________________ VICKY PATTERSON, as surviving daughter and as anticipated administrator of the Estate of Patricia Daniel, deceased, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus LAKE CITY NURSING AND REHABILITATION, LLC, Defendant-Appellant, JOHN DOE 1, et al., Defendants. ____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia D.C. Docket No. 1:24-cv-04372-JPB ____________________ Before BRANCH and LUCK, Circuit Judges. BY THE COURT: USCA11 Case: 25-13869 Document: 25-2 Date Filed: 04/29/2026 Page: 2 of 4 2 Order of the Court 25-13869 Lake City Nursing and Rehabilitation, LLC (“Lake City”) appeals the district court’s order denying its motion to compel arbitration. We issued a jurisdictional question (“JQ”) about whether the relevant pleadings adequately alleged the parties’ citizenships so as to invoke the district court’s diversity jurisdiction. See 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a)(1), (c)(1), (c)(2); Mallory & Evans Contractors & Eng’rs, LLC v. Tuskegee Univ., 663 F.3d 1304, 1305 (11th Cir. 2011); Alliant Tax Credit 31, Inc v. Murphy, 924 F.3d 1134, 1143 (11th Cir. 2019). The pleadings did not distinctly and affirmatively allege the citizenship of Vitas Healthcare Corporation of Georgia (“Vitas”) or Vicky Patterson, as administrator of Patricia Daniel’s estate. McGovern v. Am. Airlines, Inc., 511 F.2d 653, 654 (5th Cir. 1975) (“When jurisdiction depends on citizenship, citizenship should be distinctly and affirmatively alleged.” (quotation marks omitted)). In response to the JQ, Lake City points us to record evidence to establish the parties’ citizenships and moves to amend its notice of removal. In her response to the JQ, Patterson agrees that the parties were diverse. Vitas did not file a response. The pleadings, as amended by Lake City’s proposed amended notice of removal, sufficiently allege Lake City’s and Patterson’s citizenship at the time of removal. The proposed amended notice of removal alleges that Daniel was a Georgia citizen at the time of her death and that Lake City’s members are all New York citizens. See 28 U.S.C. § 1332(c)(2); King v. Cessna Aircraft Co., 505 F.3d 1160, 1170 (11th Cir. 2007) (explaining that a USCA11 Case: 25-13869 Document: 25-2 Date Filed: 04/29/2026 Page: 3 of 4 25-13869 Order of the Court 3 legal representative of an estate is a citizen of the same state as the decedent at the time of the decedent’s death); Mallory, 663 F.3d at 1305 (providing that a party must allege the citizenships of all members of the LLC). The record evidence and the proposed amended notice of removal fail to establish Vitas’s citizenship. The proposed amended notice of removal does not address Vitas’s citizenship, and neither the pleadings nor Vitas’s unsworn corporate disclosure form establish its citizenship. See 28 U.S.C. § 1332(c)(1); Tra