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Last week saw a few decisions of note. The First Circuit addressed both the exception to the merger doctrine for failure-to-prosecute dismissals and an exception to that exception. The Seventh Circuit said that the appointment of a special master was not an appealable injunction, though it left open the possibility that different circumstances could render an appointment appealable.…

Under the merger doctrine, all of a district court’s interlocutory decisions merge into the final judgment. That means all of those decisions can be reviewed in an appeal from a final judgment. But there are exceptions to the merger rule, such as when a party invites a dismissal by ceasing its prosecution of a case.…

Last week produced a few decisions of note. The Sixth Circuit said that you don’t need a certificate of appealability to appeal a decision on habeas bail. The Eleventh Circuit refused to consider a district court’s post-appeal statements on the sentence it would have imposed had there been no error. Two courts addressed the order-designation requirement for notices of appeal.…

The last year or so has seen some significant judicial activity when it comes to the finality trap. The trap can arise after a party voluntarily dismisses some of its claims without prejudice and then tries to appeal. This scenario makes some courts of appeals suspicious, as parties sometimes use these voluntary dismissals to manufacture an interlocutory appeal.…

Courts of appeals sometimes review jury verdicts de novo by characterizing an issue as a “legal” one (as opposed to a “factual” one). As much can be seen in this week’s Supreme Court decision in Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc., in which the Court said that “the ultimate question of whether [the facts found by the jury] showed a ‘fair use’ is a legal question for judges to decide de novo.”…

Last week, the Tenth Circuit tackled a bunch of appellate-jurisdiction issues before reversing the refiling restrictions that a district court had imposed on a plaintiff’s attorney. The Fifth Circuit rejected a defendant’s attempt to challenge the factual basis for a qualified-immunity denial. The Seventh Circuit once again explained district courts’ discretion to extend appeal deadlines due to excusable neglect or good cause.…

In Frank v. Crawley Petroleum Corp., the Tenth Circuit addressed just about every appellate-jurisdiction issue that could arise when an attorney appeals to challenge conditions on refiling. The district court in Frank had granted the plaintiff’s voluntary dismissal of a purported class action. But in doing so, the court restricted the plaintiff’s attorney’s ability to refile a similar class action.…

Last week saw a rare pushback against fact-based qualified-immunity appeals. Those appeals are both frivolous and common. Sanctions are rare. But the Sixth Circuit ordered some defendants to show cause as to why they should not be sanctioned for challenging the factual basis for an immunity denial. In other decisions, the Fifth Circuit applied Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(4) to appeals under the collateral-order doctrine.…

28 U.S.C. § 1447(d) generally bars review of district court orders remanding a case to state court. But only certain kinds of remands fall under § 1447(d)’s bar. Last week, in Academy of Country Music v. Continental Casualty Co., the Ninth Circuit held that § 1447(d) did not apply when the district court had not given the defendant a chance to establish the amount in controversy for purposes of diversity jurisdiction.…

Civil litigants normally have 30 days after the district court’s final judgment to file their notice of appeal. But several kinds of motions—like those for judgment as a matter of law under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50(b), to alter or amend the judgment under Rule 59, or for relief under Rule 60—can reset that 30-day deadline.…