Slate v. Shell Oil Company

• Decision Date: 27 July 2006
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 06-0149-WS-M.
• Citation: 444 F.Supp.2d 1210
• Parties: Brenda M. SLATE, et al., Plaintiffs, v. SHELL OIL COMPANY, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Alabama

444 F.Supp.2d 1210

Brenda M. SLATE, et al., Plaintiffs, v. SHELL OIL COMPANY, et al., Defendants.

Civil Action No. 06-0149-WS-M.

United States District Court, S.D. Alabama, Southern Division.

July 27, 2006.

Gregory B. Breedlove, Toby D. Brown, George McCormick Dent, III, Cunningham, Bounds, Yance, Crowder & Brown, Mobile, AL, for Plaintiff.

Edward S. Sledge, IV, Jessica Stetler Grover, Patrick Charles Cooper, Maynard, Cooper, and Gale P.C., Birmingham, AL, for Defendants.

ORDER

STEELE, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on plaintiffs' Motion to Remand (doc. 4) this action to the Circuit Court of Mobile County Alabama. The parties having completed jurisdictional discovery as to the domicile of defendant James R. Blanton, and the parties having supplemented the record with memoranda and exhibits documenting the fruits of such discovery, the Motion is now ripe for disposition.¹

I. Background.

A. Factual and Procedural Posture.

On May 18, 2006, the undersigned entered an Order (doc. 15) tracing the factual and procedural posture of this action in detail. In lieu of reiterating that discussion in its entirety, a brief synopsis will be furnished here. This lawsuit for personal injury and wrongful death arises from a May 2004 accident on a platform rig in Alabama state waters. On February 1, 2006, five named plaintiffs (Brenda Slate, Anthony slate, Sandra Slate, Joseph Saylor, and Leah Saylor) filed suit against Shell Oil Company, Shell Yellowhammer Plant, James Blanton, and Daniel Echols in Mobile County Circuit Court, seeking relief for injuries and damages incurred in the accident. Defendants timely removed this action to this District Court on the basis of diversity of citizenship, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332. Plaintiffs now seek to remand this action to state court, arguing that defendant Blanton is of non-diverse citizenship relative to the plaintiffs, such that diversity jurisdiction does not lie. It is undisputed that all plaintiffs are citizens and residents of Alabama. (Joint Notice of Removal (doc. 1), ¶ 6.) Therefore, if Blanton is properly classified as an Alabama citizen, then diversity of citizenship is lacking and this action must be remanded. By contrast, if Blanton is a citizen of any state other than Alabama, then § 1332 jurisdiction has properly been invoked and the Motion to Remand must be denied.

Because the record was incomplete and inconclusive as to Blanton's domicile, the Court authorized a limited six-week jurisdictional discovery period to enable the parties to marshal evidence to bolster their respective positions and inform the Court's judgment as to where Blanton was domiciled in February 2006, when the Complaint was originally filed. The parties have now completed that discovery period and supplemented the record with additional evidence and argument.

B. Evidence Concerning Blanton's Domicile.

In a jurisdictional deposition taken on July 6, 2006, Blanton testified that he moved from Texas to Alabama in 1996; that his home address is 5749 Carrick Road in Eight Mile, Alabama; and that he has lived at that address since August 1996. (Blanton Dep., at 7-8.)² Blanton has owned the Carrick Road house subject to a mortgage since 1996, and owns no other real property anywhere. (Id. at 38-39, 45.) As of February 2006, Blanton's wife of 23 years, two of his three children (the youngest of which graduated from an Alabama high school in May 2006) and both of his dogs resided full-time at the same Eight Mile address. (Id. at 10-12, 18, 58, 62, 72-73.)

Blanton is a long-time employee of Shell Oil Company. In September 2004, he accepted a promotion from his position in Mobile to a job based at One Shell Square, New Orleans, Louisiana. (Id. at 18, 62-63.) From September 2004 through July 2006, Blanton has maintained two residences, including both the Eight Mile house and an apartment in New Orleans. (Id. at 55, 62.) This prefurnished apartment was provided for Blanton by his employer, and Shell pays the rent, the parking fees, and all utility bills on such apartment. (Id. at 55-56, 80.) In that regard, the record is clear that as of January and February 2006, Blanton was "staying in an apartment that was completely paid for by Shell Oil Company." (Id. at 57.) As of February 2006, Blanton had not put his Eight Mile house up for sale, nor had he purchased any property in Louisiana. (Id. at 54-55.) All of Blanton's home furnishings remain in Alabama. (Id. at 76.)

As of February 2006 (and for approximately 18 months before that), Blanton was splitting time nearly equally between the Eight Mile home (where his family and pets live and where he has lived since 1996) and the New Orleans apartment which was provided and paid for by Shell. He was spending every Saturday and Sunday, and approximately half of his Fridays, at the Eight Mile house with his family, just as he had done since September 2004. (Id. at 19-20, 78.) His weekly routine as of February 2006 was to commute to work in Louisiana, spend four nights in Louisiana for work, and come home to Alabama to spend three nights with his family. (Id. at 60-61.)³

Blanton's documentation and records are almost exclusively Alabama-based. He holds an Alabama driver's license, an Alabama gun permit, an Alabama hunting license, and an Alabama fishing license. (Id. at 25.) He does not possess Louisiana analogues to any of these items. Blanton's only active bank accounts are at AmSouth Bank in Mobile, with whom he has a 10-year banking relationship, and those accounts list his Alabama address. (Id. at 28, 49.)⁴ He is registered to vote in the state of Alabama, and nowhere else. (Id. at 29-30.) The only healthcare providers that Blanton sees are located in Alabama, and he schedules appointments with them to coincide with his time at Eight Mile. (Id. at 30-32.) All utility bills for the Eight Mile home are sent to Blanton at that address. (Id. at 32-33.) Blanton receives approximately 90% of his mail at the Eight Mile address, and the remainder goes to his New Orleans office, not to the Shell apartment. (Id. at 39-40.) Blanton has an Alabama home telephone number and an Alabama cell phone number, without Louisiana iterations of either. (Id. at 34.) All four automobiles that Blanton owns (including the one that he personally drives) are registered in Alabama and bear Alabama license plates. (Id. at 35-36.) Blanton's boat and four-wheeler are also registered and maintained in Alabama. (Id. at 36.) Blanton pays Alabama property taxes, but no Louisiana property taxes, although he pays income taxes in both states. (Id. at 42.) He is a member of a church in Prichard, Alabama, as well as a fishing club in Mobile, Alabama. (Id. at 51-53.) He belonged to a hunting club in McIntosh, Alabama in early 2006. (Id. at 53.) By contrast, Blanton established no new memberships in Louisiana organizations since beginning work there in September 2004. (Id. at 59.)⁵ And the only bills he was paying in Louisiana as of February 2006 were grocery bills. (Id. at 60.)

Notwithstanding the foregoing, Blanton also testified that he subjectively considers the Shell apartment to be his home, and that he has no intention of staying in Mobile because the only existing Shell jobs in Mobile are at a lower level than his current position in Louisiana. (Id. at 62-63.) In that regard, Blanton's testimony was unmistakably clear that he intends to remain in the New Orleans area for the foreseeable future. (Id. at 63.) In explaining why he has not registered his vehicle in Louisiana or registered to vote in Louisiana, Blanton cited the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the region in August 2005 and the resulting collapse of New Orleans' infrastructure. (Id. at 63-64.)⁶ He testified that his daughter has enrolled at Dillard University in New Orleans in anticipation of the family's move. (Id. at 65.)⁷ Furthermore, Blanton indicated that he intends to purchase a house in New Orleans, but that he has not done so yet because of lack of familiarity with the hurricane-ravaged area. (Id.) Blanton explained his dual-residence lifestyle since September 2004 as being animated by a desire not to displace his youngest child during his high school years. With his son's graduation in May 2006, Blanton stated, the family is now implementing its plan to sell the Eight Mile house and move to Louisiana. (Id. at 66-67.)⁸

II. Determination of Blanton's Domicile as of February 2006.

A. Legal Standard.

For diversity purposes, a person is a citizen of the state in which he is domiciled. See McCormick v. Aderholt, 293 F.3d 1254, 1257 (11th Cir.2002) ("Citizenship is equivalent to `domicile' for purposes of diversity jurisdiction."); Valentin v. Hospital Bella Vista, 254 F.3d 358, 366 (1st Cir.2001) (same). "Domicile," in turn, is properly defined as "the place of his true, fixed, and permanent home and principal establishment, and to which he has the intention of returning whenever he is absent therefrom." Sunseri v. Macro Cellular Partners, 412 F.3d 1247, 1249 (11th Cir.2005) (citations omitted); Valentin, 254 F.3d at 366; see also Kanter v. Warner— Lambert Co., 265 F.3d 853, 857 (9th Cir. 2001) ("A person's domicile is her permanent home, where she resides with the intention to remain or to which she intends to return.").⁹

Determination of a party's domicile requires a "totality of the circumstances" approach weighing a constellation of objective facts, no single one of which is entitled to controlling weight. See Macone v. Nelson, 274 F.Supp.2d 136, 139 (D.P.R.2003); Greenblatt v. Gluck, 265 F.Supp.2d 346, 351 (S.D.N.Y.2003); Audi Performance & Racing, LLC v. Kasberger, 273 F.Supp.2d 1220, 1227 (M.D.Ala.2003).¹⁰ Among the numerous indicia considered are the state(s) where civil and political rights are exercised, where taxes are paid, where real and personal property are located, where driver's and other licenses are obtained, where mail is received, where telephone numbers are maintained...