Business Law Today, Comprehensive 10th Edition by Roger LeRoy Miller

Exercise 8

Diversity of Citizenship. Kelley Mala was severely burned when his boat exploded after being over-fueled at Crown Bay Marina, Inc., in the United States Virgin Islands. Mala filed a lawsuit in a federal district court against Crown Bay alleging that the marina negligently maintained its gas pump. (Negligence is the failure to exercise the standard of care that a reasonable person would exercise in similar circumstances. Negligence is a tort -a breach of a legal duty that proximately causes harm or injury to another-that forms the basis for a claim subject to applicable state law.) Mala sought a jury trial. Crown Bay, however, argued that a plaintiff in an admiralty, or maritime, case does not have a right to a jury trial unless the court has diversity jurisdiction. Crown Bay asserted that it, like Mala, was a citizen of the Virgin Islands. At trial, Mala did not provide evidence that Crown Bay was anything other than a citizen of the Virgin Islands. The district court struck down Mala's demand for a jury trial, but opted to empanel an advisory jury The district court then rejected the jury's recommendation for a verdict in Mala's favor and entered a judgment for Crown Bay Mala appealed. Will the appellate court rule that there was a diversity of citizenship Why or why not