1. How do you determine the principal place of business of a corporation? Could the underlying purposes of the diversity statute help you solve this problem?

2. P, a citizen of California, sues the D Corp. in federal court in the Northern District of California (N.D. Cal.) under state law for more than $75k. The suit concerns a faulty lighter that P bought from a store in the N.D. Cal. and blew up in P’s home in the N.D. Cal. The D Corp. makes the lighters and is incorporated in New Jersey. The D. Corp. has three of its four manufacturing plants and 2/3 of its employees in Texas. Its other plant and around 1/4 of its employees are in Louisiana. Its financial and administrative headquarters is in Los Angeles, in the Central District of California, where the President, Board of Directors and 1/12 of its employees are located. Is this a diversity case?

3. P, who lives in the N.D. Cal., sues the D Corp. in federal court in the N.D. Cal. under state law for more than $75k. The suit concerns a misrepresentation that the D Corp made from Texas about a computer program that P bought on the phone from the D Corp. while calling from New York, which was P’s home at the time. (P subsequently moved to the N.D. Cal.) The D Corp. is incorporated in Texas. It has 1/3 of its employees working phones in Texas; the rest scattered throughout the country. The financial and administrative headquarters is in Los Angeles (in the Central District of California), with 1/12 of its employees located there, including its President. Diversity case?

4. P, who is domiciled in DC, sues a law firm that has all but one of its 100 lawyers in New York. The other lawyer lives and works in DC. Diversity case?