28 U.S.C. § 1369
Verified against govinfo.gov as of June 20, 2026View official text on govinfo.gov ↗
- (a)The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action involving minimal diversity between adverse parties that arises from a single accident, where at least 75 natural persons have died in the accident at a discrete location, if—
- (1)a defendant resides in a State and a substantial part of the accident took place in another State or other location, regardless of whether that defendant is also a resident of the State where a substantial part of the accident took place;
- (2)any two defendants reside in different States, regardless of whether such defendants are also residents of the same State or States; or
- (3)substantial parts of the accident took place in different States.
- (b)The district court shall abstain from hearing any civil action described in subsection (a) in which—
- (c)For purposes of this section—
- (1)minimal diversity exists between adverse parties if any party is a citizen of a State and any adverse party is a citizen of another State, a citizen or subject of a foreign state, or a foreign state as defined in section 1603(a) of this title;
- (2)a corporation is deemed to be a citizen of any State, and a citizen or subject of any foreign state, in which it is incorporated or has its principal place of business, and is deemed to be a resident of any State in which it is incorporated or licensed to do business or is doing business;
- (3)the term “injury” means—
- (4)the term “accident” means a sudden accident, or a natural event culminating in an accident, that results in death incurred at a discrete location by at least 75 natural persons; and
- (5)the term “State” includes the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and any territory or possession of the United States.
- (d)In any action in a district court which is or could have been brought, in whole or in part, under this section, any person with a claim arising from the accident described in subsection (a) shall be permitted to intervene as a party plaintiff in the action, even if that person could not have brought an action in a district court as an original matter.
- (e)A district court in which an action under this section is pending shall promptly notify the judicial panel on multidistrict litigation of the pendency of the action.