Melissa Hart and John Hart v. Terminex International, a Delaware Corporation, Doing Business as Balantyne Pest Control

336 F.3d 541 · Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit · 2003

Facts

Melissa and John Hart, Illinois citizens, sued Dow Chemical, DowElanco, and Terminix International Company L.P. (a partnership) for injuries. The case was removed to federal court based on diversity, but it was later discovered that Terminix had Illinois citizens as partners, destroying complete diversity. This jurisdictional issue was not resolved until eight years into the federal litigation.

Issue

Did the federal court possess subject matter jurisdiction based on diversity of citizenship when a defendant partnership included partners who shared citizenship with the plaintiffs, thereby lacking complete diversity?

Holding

No, the federal court lacked subject matter jurisdiction because there was no complete diversity of citizenship. The district court's judgment was vacated, and the case was remanded with instructions to dismiss for want of jurisdiction.

Rule

For diversity jurisdiction, the citizenship of an unincorporated association or partnership is determined by the citizenship of all its members or partners, traced through all layers of ownership. Complete diversity requires that no plaintiff shares citizenship with any defendant.

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Case brief last reviewed 2026-04-18. Prepared by CaseReader from the published opinion.