Blog

This month’s roundup features two decisions on litigants’ attempts to voluntarily dismiss some of their claims. In one, a defendant filed a written, pretrial notice that it abandoned one of its counterclaims. In another, the parties stipulated to a dismissal, but one defendant did not sign the stipulation. In both cases, the court deemed the attempted voluntary dismissal ineffective.…

In Gessele v. Jack in the Box Inc., the Ninth Circuit held that when a district court alters its judgment by granting a post-judgment motion, the time to appeal runs from the entry of an amended judgment. Unlike orders denying post-judgment motions, the appeal clock does not start with the order itself.…

In Simmons v. USI Insurance LLC, the Eleventh Circuit held that the purported abandonment of a counterclaim before trial was ineffective and thus precluded appellate jurisdiction. The counterclaim was the only theory of relief that had not been resolved at summary judgment or trial. And in a written notice before trial, the defendant had said it no longer intended to pursue the theory.…

September’s biggest development in federal appellate jurisdiction concerned appeals from denials of anti-SLAPP motions under California law. The Ninth Circuit overruled its longstanding rule that defendants can immediately appeal from these denials via the collateral-order doctrine. But only a week later, the Federal Circuit followed that now-overruled caselaw and heard an anti-SLAPP appeal.…

Last month saw the Ninth Circuit apply its rule that a minute order can count as a separate document for purposes of starting the appeal clock. The Sixth Circuit explained when it cannot review contract-formation issues in an arbitration appeal. And the Fourth Circuit declined to exercise pendent appellate jurisdiction over standing and ripeness issues in a sovereign-immunity appeal.…

Last month saw a new circuit split on the deadline for appealing qualified-immunity denials. The Ninth Circuit held that the apeal clock starts with the entry of the order denying qualified immunity, not with any subsequent entry of a judgment. In doing so, the Ninth Circuit split with the Fifth, which has held that the separate-document requirement applies to appealable orders just as much as appealable judgments.…

An extended vacation and some pressing matters in cases prevented me from posting much last month. But that doesn’t mean July was uneventful. Courts addressed the propriety appeals from the rejection of various defenses, including state immunities and the litigation privilege. The Eleventh Circuit held that a parties can use Rule 41 to dismiss a single plaintiff in a multi-plaintiff action.…

Last month saw the last Supreme Court decision from this term on appellate jurisdiction. The Court held that a notice of appeal filed before the district court reopens the time to appeal relates forward to that reopening.

In the courts of appeals, we saw decisions on automatic stays for remand appeals, the various ways to deal with deficient final judgments, and some issues regarding preservation, waiver, and forfeiture.…

In United States v. Cabrera-Rivas, the Fourth Circuit held that failure to object to a magistrate judge’s decision does not affect appellate jurisdiction. The failure instead implicates preservation. In so holding, the Fourth Circuit agreed with the Sixth Circuit but split with the Fifth and Eleventh Circuits.…

In Coomer v. Make Your Life Epic, LLC, the Tenth Circuit held that it could review an order holding a non-party in civil contempt. Although the exact amount the party would have to pay was undetermined, the order was sufficiently specific in requiring a “sum certain” of $1,000/day. And although the district court had not yet determined the amount of attorneys fees owed for the contempt, those fees were collateral to the civil contempt and thus did not preclude finality.…