Posts in category “Appellate Decisions”

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.…

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.…

In Grunt Style LLC v. TWD, LLC, the Seventh Circuit issued a limited remand for the district court to correct an oversight in its final judgment. In the course of doing so, the court spoke at some length about the problems of—and potential solutions to—judgments that fail to mention one or more claims.…

In People ex rel Harrison v. Express Scripts, Inc., the Ninth Circuit held that an appeal from a remand order does not automatically stay the remand. In so holding, the Ninth Circuit weighed in on the split over whether the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Coinbase, Inc. v. Bielski requires a stay after a remand appeal.…

In United States v. Riojas, the Fifth Circuit held that the government can waive or forfeit the waivers inherent in an unconditional guilty plea. That’s because waiver (as the Fifth Circuit recently said in an unrelated context) is not jurisdictional. So there is no requirement that a court of appeals raise or enforce an unconditional guilty plea on the court’s own initiative.…

In Union Pacific Railroad Co. v. Illinois Mine Subsidence Insurance Fund, the Seventh Circuit held that it lacked jurisdiction to immediately review an order that narrowed the potential injunctive relief in an action.

The plaintiff in Union Pacific sought to permanently enjoin the defendant from bringing certain claims against the plaintiff.…

In Heidi Group, Inc.v. Texas Health and Human Services Commission, the Fifth Circuit reviewed the denial of federal and state immunities but declined to exercise pendent appellate jurisdiction over other issues. In the course of doing so, one judge questioned the collateral-order doctrine’s application to state immunities, and the entire court questioned the doctrine of pendent appellate jurisdiction.…

Injunction appeals have been in the spotlight of late. We’ve seen a few recent decisions on appeals from temporary restraining orders. And this month has already produced three cases involving effective denials of preliminary injunctions.

One of these cases raised a question about the test for effective—and thus appealable—injunction denials.…