The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Monday revived a lawsuit to recover $1.7 million in unpaid debt from Ohio-based drugmaker Navidea Biopharmaceuticals Inc., saying a district court judge had improperly dismissed the case without first determining a key jurisdictional issue.

The ruling, from a three-judge panel in an opinion by Judge Michael Park of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, reinstated a 2017 suit filed by Navidea creditor Platinum-Montaur Life Sciences LLC and its Holland & Knight attorneys, claiming that the company was still owed the money under a 2012 loan agreement.

Originally filed in New York state court, Navidea, a Delaware corporation headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, removed the suit to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, where Judge Valerie Caproni later dismissed it for lack of Article III. The decision followed confusion on both sides as to whether there was a complete diversity of citizenship between the parties, which would have allowed the district court to hear the case.