ZEE MEDICAL DISTRIBUTOR ASSOC. v. Zee Medical, Inc.

ORDER

INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff Zee Medical Distributor Association (“ZMDA”) is composed of distributorship companies located throughout the United States. It brings this action against defendant Zee Medical (“Zee”) to assert the rights of its members in a contract dispute. Specifically, plaintiff seeks declaratory judgment on the question whether Zee Medical’s contracts with its various distributors are terminable at will with reasonable notice, or terminable only for cause. Although some aspects of each ZMDA member’s individual contract with Zee may differ, the contractual language in dispute here is identical for all contracts.

Because this is purely a question of state law, the parties justify their presence in federal court on diversity grounds. ZMDA’s complaint alleges that it is a citizen of Nevada for diversity purposes, and that Zee is a citizen of California. Some of ZMDA’s members are citizens of California as well, but they are not named parties in the suit.

On September 18, 1998, the parties were scheduled to appear before this Court to argue the merits of the case on summary judgment. However, before the scheduled hearing, the Court discovered two potential…