Posts in category “Appellate Decisions”

The past several years have seen the courts of appeals struggling with their jurisdiction when plaintiffs voluntarily dismiss some of their claims without prejudice. Concerned that these plaintiffs are trying to manufacture an interlocutory appeal, the courts have developed a variety of rules on appealability. The Fifth Circuit, for example, requires that the would-be appellant obtain a partial judgment under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(b).…

Last summer, the Eleventh Circuit heard an immediate appeal from a district court’s denial of what’s often called “Parker immunity.” This so-called immunity provides that the Sherman Act generally does not cover a state’s anticompetitive conduct. The case—SmileDirectClub, LLC v. Battle—produced three separate opinions on appealability. The majority and dissent argued over the application of the the rule allowing these appeals via the collateral-order doctrine.…

Extensive post-judgment proceedings sometimes follow litigation. These proceedings might involve efforts to collect on a judgment. Or they might involve a district court’s supervision of a consent decree or remedial injunction. These post-judgment proceedings are considered a separate action for finality purposes. So litigants have a right to appeal from a final decision.…

Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(5) permits district courts to extend the appeal deadline upon a showing of good cause or excusable neglect. The Seventh Circuit has held that this good-cause/excusable-neglect requirement is jurisdictional. That means the court of appeals must police the good-cause/excusable-neglect requirement on its own initiative, even if the parties do not dispute it.…

A few years ago, in Xitronix v. KLA-Tencor, the Fifth and Federal Circuits could not agree on which of them should hear an appeal. The issue was whether a Walker Process claim arose under patent law. If it did, the Federal Circuit would have exclusive jurisdiction; if not, the appeal would go to the appropriate regional circuit.…

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.…

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.…

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.…

Fact-based qualified-immunity appeals—that is, appeals from the denial of immunity in which a defendant challenges the factual basis for the immunity denial—are a problem in the courts of appeals. With rare and narrow exceptions, the courts of appeals lack jurisdiction over these appeals. Defendants nevertheless take these appeals with some frequency, adding wholly unnecessary complexity, expense, and delay to civil-rights litigation.…