Civil Procedure MBE Tip of the Day

Answer to the Civil Procedure MBE Question

Subject: Civil Procedure

Legal Issue: Subject matter jurisdiction and domicile

Legal Rule and Analysis: For complete diversity to be present, no plaintiff can be domiciled in the same state as any defendant.  A person is domiciled in her home state, where she intends to stay indefinitely.  One’s domicile is where the individual has a true, fixed home and principal establishment and where one intends to eventually return.  A person can have more than one residence, but only one true domicile.  For jurisdiction purposes, domicile is measured at the time the claim is filed.

A corporation is domiciled in the state in which it is incorporated and in the state where its principal place of business is located.  A corporation’s principal place of business is generally deemed to be where its headquarters are, i.e. where the nerve center of the corporation is located and where the control over operations is exerted.

In this case, the woman is domiciled in State A.  Although she maintained a residence in State B, she always intended to return home to State A.  Even though she changed her mind months later, since she still intended on returning to State A at the time she filed the suit, State A is her domicile for this determination.  The manufacturing corporation is incorporated in State C, and its headquarters are located in State B (as this is where the control over the corporation’s operations is centered).  This means that the corporation is domiciled in State B and State C only.

Conclusion: Since the woman is domiciled in State A only and the corporation is domiciled in states B and C only, complete diversity is present and the motion should be denied.

Look at the answer choices provided. Choose an answer choice that matches your conclusion. Review the other answer choices provided. 

The answer choice (B) is therefore correct. (A) is incorrect because the woman was not domiciled in State B when the claim was filed and the corporation is not domiciled in State A.  Just because there are many employees who work at those sites and a majority of the cars are produced there does not mean that that is where the corporation would be domiciled.

(C) is incorrect because domicile for the purpose of jurisdiction is determined at the moment the claim is filed.  Since the woman was still intending to return to State A at that time, making that her established home, the woman’s domicile for this suit is State A.  (D) is incorrect because the corporation is not domiciled in State A.  State A is neither where the corporation is incorporated nor where the corporation’s principal place of business is located, regardless of the fact that a majority of cars are produced there.

MBE Tip: Develop a plan for how you want to handle long questions.  On the MBE, you have an average of about 1 minute and 48 seconds to answer each question.  However, ones with long fact patterns can take longer than that to read and process.  Depending on your pacing, it might be worth it to just select a random answer on your sheet and make some sort of a mark indicating you need to come back to this question at the end.  You want to be able to give your best effort to as many questions as possible, and spending too long agonizing over a long (or difficult) question can hinder you in the long run.  Always know when it is time to move on!