Virginia Lawyers Weekly

A plaintiff who sued a Martinsville branch of SunTrust Bank in state court cannot defeat removal of her suit to federal court, as the branch bank is not a separate legal entity and SunTrust, the Georgia corporation, must be substituted as defendant; the Danville U.S. District Court grants defendant’s motion to substitute defendant and denies plaintiff’s motion to remand.

The court agrees with defendant that SunTrust Bank should be substituted as defendant because Mid-Atlantic in Martinsville does not exist as a separate legal entity. Because Mid-Atlantic is neither an individual nor a corporation, its capacity to sue or be sued in this court is based on Virginia law.

Under Virginia law, unincorporated associations may sue or be sued, Va. Code § 8.01-15, but this grant is limited to voluntary groups of persons joined together by mutual consent for the purpose of promoting some stated objective, such as trade unions, fraternal organizations, business organizations and the like. Virginia courts have not applied this statute to unincorporated divisions of a corporation.

The court finds that Mid-Atlantic lacks capacity under Virginia law, and accordingly, grants defendant’s motion to substitute SunTrust bank as defendant.

Further, the court finds defendant has carried its burden to show that SunTrust’s nerve center or its place of operations is in a state other than Virginia based on the affidavit of Robert P. Burton, the Virginia State Corporation Commission records and two of three contracts filed as exhibits to plaintiff’s complaint, all of which provide that SunTrust’s principal place of office is in Atlanta, Georgia. The court denies plaintiff’s motion to remand, as the requirements of 28 U.S.C. § 1332 are satisfied.

Smart v. SunTrust Bank, Mid-Atlantic (Wilson, J.) No. 4:09cv00015, June 18, 2009; USDC at Danville, Va. VLW 009-3-350, 4 pp.

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