Company’s Suit Rightly Tossed Out Over Citizenship Distortions

Dining Alliance LLC’s claims against another procurement company were properly dismissed as a sanction because Dining Alliance misrepresented its corporate structure and citizenship, a federal appeals court said.

“Dining Alliance unacceptably hid the ball with respect to elementary jurisdictional facts during the entire course of this litigation, including on appeal,” the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said on Tuesday.

In 2020, another food purchasing company, Ben E. Keith Company, brought Texas state law claims against Dining Alliance in federal court invoking diversity jurisdiction because Dining Alliance appeared to be a citizen of Massachusetts. But before the suit, ...