## Facts

- Randazzo brought an asbestos-related personal injury action against multiple corporate defendants, including Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc., Bevco Industries, and C.E. Refractories.
- The action was part of consolidated asbestos litigation in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and incorporated allegations from a master long-form complaint.
- The complaint invoked federal subject-matter jurisdiction solely on diversity under 28 U.S.C. § 1332.
- The original complaint failed to allege required corporate citizenship facts: it omitted both the state of incorporation and principal place of business for Bevco Industries and omitted the principal place of business for C.E. Refractories.
- The court dismissed the original complaint for jurisdictional pleading deficiencies and granted the plaintiff ten days to amend.
- The amended complaint repeated the same defective jurisdictional allegations rather than supplying the missing citizenship information.

## Issues

1. Whether a diversity complaint satisfies Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(1) and 28 U.S.C. § 1332 when it does not allege, for each corporate defendant, both the state of incorporation and the principal place of business.
2. Whether dismissal should be with prejudice after the plaintiff is given a specific opportunity to cure the jurisdictional pleading defects but files an amended complaint that repeats them.

## Decision

- The court held the amended complaint remained jurisdictionally deficient because it did not allege complete corporate citizenship information required to assess diversity.
- The court dismissed the action for failure to properly plead subject-matter jurisdiction.
- Because the plaintiff had been clearly directed to correct the defects and failed to do so, the dismissal was with prejudice.

## Legal Principles

- Federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction, and the party invoking jurisdiction must plead it affirmatively and distinctly.
- Under Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(1), a complaint must contain a short and plain statement of the grounds for the court’s jurisdiction.
- Under 28 U.S.C. § 1332(c)(1), a corporation is a citizen of both its state of incorporation and the state of its principal place of business; a diversity pleading must allege both for each corporate party.
- If jurisdictional facts essential to diversity are not pleaded, the court must dismiss rather than assume jurisdiction or supply missing allegations.
- Repeated failure to cure identified jurisdictional pleading defects after leave to amend can justify dismissal with prejudice.

## Conclusion

The court dismissed the diversity action with prejudice because the plaintiff twice failed to plead the corporate defendants’ complete citizenship—both incorporation and principal place of business—preventing a determination that complete diversity existed under § 1332.


Randazzo v. Eagle-Picher Indus., Inc., 117 F.R.D. 557 (E.D. Pa. 1987)