Judge Paul Crotty
The Credit Suisse defendants’ motion to dismiss Unclaimed Property Recovery Service’s (UPRS) and Gelb’s complaint against Credit Suisse First Boston Corp., Credit Suisse (USA) Inc. and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (CSSU) was withdrawn following plaintiffs’ amended complaint against Credit Suisse AG (CS AG) and CSSU. UPRS and Gelb are New York citizens. The court granted defendants dismissal for lack of jurisdiction. Rejecting, as misplaced, plaintiffs’ reliance on Hertz Corp. v. Friend the court found no diversity of citizenship. CSSU is a New York citizen because its sole member, Credit Suisse (USA) Inc. is headquartered and has its principal place of business in New York. Plaintiffs’ exhibits confirming that CS AG is headquartered in Switzerland and has a New York office did not suggest that Credit Suisse (USA) Inc.and thus CSSUwere not New York citizens. The court also rejected plaintiffs’ argument that CSSU and CS AG were alter egos such that CS AG’s lack of New York citizenship could be imputed to CSSU. Citing Zadora-Gerlof v. Axa Nordstern Art Ins. and Grunblatt v. UnumProvident, the court found that, if correct, plaintiffs’ alter ego theory would only serve to remove any diversity whatsoever between the parties.
