Opinion ID: 1702725
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: Citizenship of the parties and any affiliation they might have with out-of-state entities

Text: AmSouth does not dispute that the Deeses are Alabama residents, and it admits in its brief to this Court that it is an Alabama state-chartered bank. However, as previously noted, the Deeses' complaint presents claims against both AmSouth and Countrywide, a foreign corporation, and asserts that various aspects of the transactions underlying their action involved Countrywide. As also noted earlier, the Deeses' complaint alleges breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment, fraud, suppression, negligence, and wantonness by both AmSouth and Countrywide, stemming from the alleged wrongful handling of the mortgage loan and the line of credit. Importantly, the complaint alleges that a conspiracy between AmSouth and Countrywide to defraud the Deeses in connection with the transaction existed. The Deeses' allegation of a conspiracy between Countrywide and AmSouth will necessitate an analysis of the business dealings between them in the subject transactions. Furthermore, the interrelated nature of the claims asserted against AmSouth and Countrywide in the complaint implicates the entirety of their relationship. Thus, the citizenship-of-the-parties factor, relating to Countrywide's status, lends some support to an argument that the credit agreement evidences a transaction that substantially affects interstate commerce. It does not matter that Countrywide ultimately dismissed its appeal of the denial of its request for arbitration, because we consider only the record the trial court had before it, and Countrywide was a codefendant in the case at all times during the proceedings below.