More on WVU v. Rodriguez

Last week I talked about West Virginia University's lawsuit against former football coach Rich Rodriguez. Rodriguez removed the case to federal court based on diversity-of-citizenship jurisdiction, arguing that he became a citizen of Michigan prior to the filing of the lawsuit on December 27.

Last Friday, WVU filed a motion to remand to state court. It hit both of the points I discussed in the earlier post. First, the university is an arm of the State of West Virginia and not a citizen of West Virginia for diversity purposes. Second, Rodriguez was a West Virginia citizen on December 27. WVU points to four facts: a) Rodriguez had lived in West Virginia for a number of years prior to the lawsuit; b) Rodriguez and his family still live in their West Virginia residence (the place where Rodriguez was served with process); c) Rodriguez's children continue to attend school in West Virginia; and d) on January 10 (two weeks after the lawsuit was filed), Rodriguez sent a piece of correspondence listing his West Virginia residence as return address.

WVU also amended its complaint to add a claim for breach of contract. The first payment on the buyout clause apparently was due last Friday and was not paid.

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