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The Federal Judicial Center released a new report on petitions to appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b). The report—Emery G. Lee III, Jason A. Cantone & Kristin A. Garri, Permissive Interlocutory Appeals, 2013–2019—presents data on the incidence and resolution of § 1292(b) petitions terminated between October 1, 2013, and June 30, 2019.…

In Norton v. High, the Fourth Circuit dismissed a pro se plaintiff’s appeal from a sanction order. The plaintiff had filed his notice of appeal after the district court ordered him sanctioned but before the court determined the amount of sanctions. The notice was thus premature. And under the Fourth Circuit’s approach to cumulative finality and Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(2), the district court’s subsequent decision setting that amount did not save the premature notice.…

Last week saw decisions on appealing bankruptcy remands and orders distributing receivership assets. The Federal Circuit used mandamus to address an unresolved and important venue issue in patent-infringement suits. And the Third Circuit dismissed an attorney’s appeal because the attorney was not named in the notice of appeal. Plus an appeal from an unexplained denial of qualified immunity and a new cert petition that suggests overruling Mitchell v.…

In In re Google LLC, the Federal Circuit used mandamus to order that a case be dismissed or transferred due to improper venue. The district court had concluded that Google’s having cache servers (but no employees) within the Eastern District of Texas was enough for venue to be proper in a patent-infringement suit.…

Updated with thoughts on some comments I’ve received.

In 2018, I published an article about cumulative finality. The cumulative-finality doctrine allows certain events to save certain premature notices of appeal. The rule can’t be stated much more specifically, however, because the law in this area is all over the map.…

Last summer, the Rules Committee proposed amending Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 3(c). The rule requires that appellants designate the judgment or order they are appealing in their notice of appeal. Several courts of appeals have read this requirement to mean that appellate jurisdiction exists over only the specified judgment or order.…

In In re Marino, the Ninth Circuit held that it lacked jurisdiction to review a Bankruptcy Appellate Panel decision that remanded the dispute back to the bankruptcy court. The opinion provides a nice summary of the Ninth Circuit’s law on appealing bankruptcy remands. These remands mean further proceedings in the bankruptcy court.…

Last week saw several appellate-jurisdiction decisions of note. Defendants in two civil rights suits took wholly improper appeals, which have become a staple of qualified immunity. Two circuits addressed the scope of their jurisdiction to review sentencing appeals. The Ninth Circuit avoided wading into questions about the Federal Circuit’s exclusive jurisdiction over patent appeals.…

In Monday’s Orn v. City of Tacoma, the Ninth Circuit repeatedly rejected a defendant’s attempt to argue the facts in an interlocutory qualified-immunity appeal. Although defendants have a right to immediately appeal the denial of qualified immunity, that right is limited when immunity is denied at summary judgment. The court of appeals can review whether the defendant violated clearly established federal law.…

Last week saw a few interesting appellate-jurisdiction decisions, all of which involved some uncertainty about when the time to appeal started running. The D.C. Circuit avoided deciding that issue by invoking the doctrine of “companion” jurisdiction. A concurring Ninth Circuit judge pointed out that no one seems to know when the time for appealing begins to run when two immigration cases are consolidated and only one of the cases is decided.…