Day on Torts
What is the principle place of business for a corporation for purposes of determining whether a federal court has diversity jurisdiction under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1332(c)(1)? Well, what you thought you knew is no longer the law.
The United States Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the phrase
"principal place of business’ is best read asreferring to the place where a corporation’s officers direct, control, and coordinate the corporation’s activities. It is the place that Courts of Appeals have called the corporation’s “nerve center.” And in practice it should normally be the place where the corporation maintains its head-quarters—provided that the headquarters is the actual center of direction, control, and coordination, i.e., the “nerve center,” and not simply an office where the corpora-tion holds its board meetings (for example, attended by directors and officers who have traveled there for the occasion).