Posts in category “Appellate Decisions”

In Hanover American Insurance Co. v. Tattooed Millionaire Entertainment, LLC, the Sixth Circuit held that failure to file a pre-verdict Rule 50(a) motion for judgment as a matter of law forfeits the right to renew that motion via Rule 50(b). At the close of evidence, the plaintiff in Hanover Insurance moved for judgment as a matter of law on claims involving only two of the three defendants.…

In 2018’s Hall v. Hall, the Supreme Court held that actions consolidated with other actions retain their independent character. So the resolution of one action is final and appealable, regardless of whether the other actions remain pending. Hall left some unanswered questions. Among them was what would become of pre-Hall judgments that were not immediately appealable under then-applicable circuit law.…

In Donahue v. Federal National Mortgage Association, the First Circuit held that the subsequent dismissal of a remaining defendant did not save a premature notice of appeal. The plaintiff in Donahue filed her notice after the district court had dismissed her claims against one of two defendants. So the notice of appeal was premature and technically ineffective.…

Update, December 8, 2020: The Eleventh Circuit has ordered rehearing en banc in this case. See Rehearing En Banc Granted in State-Action Antitrust Appeal for more.

In SmileDirectClub, LLC v. Battle, the Eleventh Circuit heard an interlocutory appeal from the denial of state-action (or “Parker”) immunity. A circuit split exists on whether state-action appeals are available under the collateral-order doctrine.…

The Bivens question asks whether an implied constitutional remedy exists for a federal official’s unconstitutional conduct. The Supreme Court has held that this question is within the scope of a qualified-immunity appeal. That is, in an interlocutory appeal from the denial of qualified immunity, the court of appeals can address whether a Bivens remedy exists.…

In Hermosillo v. Davey Tree Surgery Co., a divided Ninth Circuit held that it lacked jurisdiction to review a decision ordering class-wide arbitration over a request for individual arbitration. Under the Federal Arbitration Act, district court decisions ordering arbitration generally are not appealable. Decisions denying requests for arbitration generally are.…

In Corley v. Long-Lewis, Inc., the Eleventh Circuit held that a district court’s resolution of all claims was final and appealable despite the plaintiffs’ voluntarily dismissing some of those claims without prejudice. In doing so, the court had to wade through its conflicting lines of authority in this area—one holding that the resolution of all claims is final despite the voluntary dismissal, the other holding that it’s not.…

In Hicks v. Ferreya, the Fourth Circuit refused to address the Bivens question in an interlocutory qualified-immunity appeal. The Bivens question—which asks whether an implied constitutional cause of action exists for a federal official’s alleged violation of the plaintiff’s rights—is normally appealable alongside the denial of qualified immunity. But the defendants in Hicks failed to raise the issue in the district court.…

In Strange v. Islamic Republic of Iran, the D.C. Circuit held that district courts cannot “recertify” an order and thereby restart the ten-day window for seeking permission to appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b). The district court in Strange had rejected the plaintiffs’ efforts to serve process on former President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai via Twitter.…

Another court of appeals has weighed in on the scope of remand appeals. 28 U.S.C. § 1447(d) generally prohibits appellate review of orders remanding an action to state court. But it includes two express exceptions: when an action is removed under the federal-officer or civil-rights removal statutes. Recent climate-change litigation has required the courts of appeals to address the scope of remand appeals when one of those exceptions applies.…