Posts in category “Appellate Decisions”

Update, September 4, 2019: Back before the district court, the court certified its decisions for an immediate appeal under § 1292(b). Trump then petitioned to appeal, and on September 4, 2019, the D.C. Circuit granted the petition.

In the emoluments suit brought by members of Congress, the D.C. Circuit tried to avoid weighing in on whether it can order a district court—via a writ of mandamus—to certify an order for immediate appeal under 28 U.S.C.…

The Fourth Circuit took the extraordinary (and possibly improper) step today of directing a district court—via a writ of mandamus—to certify an issue for immediate appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b). It did so in one of two interlocutory appeals in Maryland and the District of Columbia’s emoluments-clause suit against Donald Trump.…

In Dominion Energy, Inc. v. City of Warren Police and Fire Retirement System (PDF, 147KB), the Fourth Circuit announced a non-exhaustive list of things it would consider in deciding whether to allow an appeal from an order remanding a class action to state court. These criteria are the same as those that several other courts of appeals use.…

The federal courts’ ongoing project of delineating which procedural rules are jurisdictional and which aren’t (and are instead claim-processing rules) continues.

The Seventh Circuit held this week that 28 U.S.C. § 2107(c)’s excusable neglect/good cause requirement for an extension of the appeal-filing deadline is jurisdictional. And the Tenth Circuit applied an earlier decision holding that administrative exhaustion of arguments under the Black Lung Benefits Act is jurisdictional, though the panel appeared to doubt that earlier decision.…

In Hamer v. Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, the Supreme Court offered a convenient shorthand for determining whether an appeal-filing time limit is jurisdictional: those prescribed by statutes are, but those found only in court-made rules are not. Bankruptcy’s appeal-filing deadline is a bit of both. 28 U.S.C. § 158(c)(2) says a notice of appeal must be filed within an amount of time set by Bankruptcy Rule 8002, which in turn specifies a 14-day filing deadline.…

I recently wrote about the Seventh Circuit’s decision in Gant v. Hartman, which illustrated Scott v. Harris’s effect on interlocutory appeals. But that wasn’t Scott’s only impact on civil procedure. It has also affected summary-judgment practice. A recent decision from the First Circuit—Underwood v. Barrett—illustrates both of the procedural changes that Scott wrought.…

Update: My article on this issue—Assumed Facts and Blatant Contradictions in Qualified-Immunity Appeals—is now available to read on SSRN.

Last week, in Gant v. Hartman, the Seventh Circuit held that it lacked jurisdiction under Johnson v. Jones to review an interlocutory qualified-immunity appeal when the defendant failed to accept the facts assumed by the district court.…

The Third Circuit tackled a slew of appellate-jurisdiction issues in the latest appeal arising out of the NFL concussion litigation. In In re National Football League Players’ Concussion Injury Litigation, the court partially reversed a district court order that voided all agreements between players and third-party litigation funders. But to get there, the court had to untangle something of a jurisdictional mess.…

A recent decision out of the Tenth Circuit—Estate of Ceballos v. Husk—illustrates the one of the several persistent problems with interlocutory qualified-immunity appeals. In Ceballos, the Tenth Circuit rightly refused to extend pendent appellate jurisdiction over a city’s appeal from the denial of its motion to dismiss a civil right claims for municipal liability (more commonly known as a “Monell claim).…