171339P.pdf   04/14/2017  Tammy Hargett  v.  St. Bernard's Hospital Inc, et
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  17-1339
                          and No:  17-1340
   U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas - Jonesboro   
   [PUBLISHED] [Smith, Author, with Bowman and Shepherd, Circuit Judges] 
   Civil Case - Class Action Fairness Act. Under the local controversy 
   exception, the term citizen means the same thing in 28 U.S.C. sec. 
   1332(d)(4)(A)(i)(I) as it does in the rest of section 1332 and that 
   definition is not synonymous with "resident." The district court erred in 
   holding that merely alleging a proposed class of Arkansas residents was 
   sufficient to satisfy section 1332(d)(4); it could have met the burden by 
   producing evidence or defining the class to include only Arkansas 
   citizens. Consideration of the amended complaint that redefined the class 
   after removal was error. For purposes of the local-controversy exception 
   in section 1332(d)(7), class citizenship must be determined as of the date 
   of the pleading giving federal jurisdiction. Nothing stated herein means 
   that the district court lacked jurisdiction. The remand order is reversed 
   and the case remanded to the district court for further proceedings.