A lawsuit over a dog’s attack on a young child at the U.S. Army’s Fort Carson base will now return to an El Paso County court, after a federal judge determined she had no jurisdiction to hear the dispute.

Miranda and Ralph Luchsinger originally filed suit in state court after a dog attacked their child on property operated by Fort Carson Family Housing, LLC. The Luchsingers alleged FCFH failed to remove the dog from the community after it reportedly attacked another minor in June 2016. Instead, the dog was allowed to remain and it bit the Luschingers’ son on Aug. 23, 2016, resulting in permanent injuries that required extensive treatment.

FCFH transferred the case to federal court by invoking “diversity jurisdiction,” which enables federal judges to hear controversies when all plaintiffs and defendants are citizens of different states. FCFH, as a limited liability company, takes on the citizenship of its members, which include two Delaware companies and the U.S. government.

However, the plaintiffs moved to remand the lawsuit back to state court on the narrow legal grounds that the United States cannot count as a state and, therefore, FCFH had not established the plaintiffs and defendants were from completely diverse states.

The company insisted the court should disregard the U.S. government because it was not itself a party, nor would the case’s outcome affect it. Nonetheless, FCFH raised a secondary argument: Because Fort Carson is a “federal enclave,” the litigation over the dog bite fell within the jurisdiction of federal courts.

Last week, U.S. District Court Senior Judge Christine M. Arguello rejected that line of thinking. FCFH was not allowed to later add new reasons for transferring the case to federal court, she admonished. As for the company’s belief that the presence of the U.S. government was irrelevant to the case, Arguello agreed with the plaintiffs that “the United States is a party that destroys complete diversity.”

She returned the litigation and the Luchsingers’ claims of negligence to El Paso County District Court.

The case is A.L. v. Pitts et al.