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Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral argument on the finality of denied requests to reopen benefits decisions for railroad workers. The Tenth Circuit joined every other circuit in holding that it could not review a remand order when post-removal joinder destroyed diversity jurisdiction. The Eighth Circuit allowed an appellant to cure a finality problem—during oral argument—by converting a voluntary dismissal to one with prejudice.…

After several quiet weeks in the world of federal appellate jurisdiction, things picked up. The First Circuit became the fourth court to recently endorse a limited scope of remand appeals under § 1447(d), although the Supreme Court might have more to say on this issue soon. The Sixth Circuit created a split on the jurisdictionality of bankruptcy’s appeal deadline, holding that the part-statute, part-rule deadline is a non-jurisdictional claim-processing rule.…

In In re Tennial, the Sixth Circuit held that bankruptcy’s 14-day deadline for filing an appeal is not jurisdictional. In doing so, the court split with every other court of appeals to address this issue. The Supreme Court has drawn a fairly clear line between deadlines found in statutes—which are jurisdictional—and those found only in rules of procedure—which aren’t.…

Last week saw two decisions of note. The Ninth Circuit suggested that plaintiffs can reinstate claims that they had voluntarily dismissed in a failed attempt to manufacture an appeal. And the Tenth Circuit held that criminal defendants cannot immediately appeal from orders deeming them competent to stand trial.…

After a couple slow weeks in the world of federal appellate jurisdiction, things have picked up. A new cert petition asks the Supreme Court to address appeals after appellants voluntarily dismiss some of their claims with prejudice. The D.C. Circuit divided over when—if ever—a conditional dismissal becomes final and appealable without a subsequent district court order.…

District courts sometimes dismiss a case with leave to refile within a certain amount of time. The courts of appeals have split on when—if ever—these dismissals become final and appealable. Last week, in North American Butterfly Association v. Wolf, the D.C. Circuit weighed in on the issue. In a split decision, the court held that a plaintiff can appeal after the time to amend expires.…

There’s little to report from last week.…

Last week was relatively uneventful in the world of federal appellate jurisdiction. The Supreme Court granted cert on the scope of remand appeals when an exception to § 1447(d) applies, an issue I’ve been following for a while. Beyond that, there’s not much to report. A divided Tenth Circuit discussed the propriety of hearing a § 1292(b) appeal.…

Last week, the Fifth Circuit issued a new opinion in Edwards v. 4JLJ, L.L.C. and treated the standard 30-day civil-appeal deadline as jurisdictional. The previous opinion in Edwards—which held that the deadline was not jurisdictional—baffled me a few weeks ago.

In other news, the First Circuit dealt with a judgment that was neither final nor a judgment.…

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure define a “judgment” as any decree or order from which an appeal lies. But just because a district court calls something a “judgment” does not mean that the court has entered a final, appealable decision. (And the rule that anything appealable is a “judgment” is not really followed.)…