Posts in category “Appellate Decisions”

In Cottonwood Environmental Law Center v. Edwards, the Ninth Circuit applied the Supreme Court’s decision in Dupree v. Younger to permit review of part of a summary-judgment denial. In the course of doing so, the court rejected the argument that the denied summary-judgment motion needed to have been potentially dispositive as to the need for a trial.…

In Argueta v. Jaradi, the Fifth Circuit created a new exception to the bar on reviewing the genuineness of fact disputes in qualified-immunity appeals. In most of those appeals, the court must take as given the district court’s determination of what facts a reasonable jury could find. But according to the Fifth Circuit, an appellate court doesn’t have to do that when video evidence exists.…

In United States v. Crump, the Third Circuit permitted the government to partially object to the untimeliness of a criminal appeal. That meant the court of appeals had to dismiss the appeal insofar as it raised the objected-to issues. But the court could address the other issues that the defendant raised on appeal.…

In Washington v. City of St. Louis, the Eighth Circuit vacated a denial of qualified immunity because the district court misstated and misapplied the summary-judgment standard. The Eighth Circuit thought this was a legal issue over which it had jurisdiction in a qualified-immunity appeal.

But I’m not sure. Most (if not all) reversible summary-judgment decisions can be characterized as misunderstandings or misapplications of the summary-judgment standard.…

In Scott v. Advanced Pharmaceutical Consultants, Inc., the Eleventh Circuit reversed the entry of a partial judgment under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(b). The district court had resolved most (but not all) of the counts pleaded in the plaintiff’s complaint. But the district court’s rejection of those counts did not resolve a distinct “claim” for purposes of Rule 54(b).…

In Garnett v. Akron City School District Board of Education, the Sixth Circuit dismissed an appeal insofar the plaintiff challenged the denial of his post-judgment Rule 60(b) motion. The plaintiff had appealed from the original judgment. But he had not filed a new or amended notice of appeal designating the Rule 60(b) denial, as Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(4)(B)(ii) requires.…

In Lowery v. Amguard Insurance Co., the Eleventh Circuit allowed an plaintiff to create a final, appealable decision by abandoning an unresolved claim. This should not be remarkable; courts have long allowed parties to abandon unresolved claims—even in the middle of oral argument—to cure defects in appellate jurisdiction.…

In Hampton v. California, the Ninth Circuit held that defendants can immediately appeal from the denial of PREP Act immunity via the collateral-order doctrine. I think this is the first time a court of appeals has done so. (The Second Circuit avoided deciding this issue last spring, and the D.C.…

In Kiviti v. Bhatt, the Fourth Circuit dismissed an appeal from an order deeming a debt dischargeable in bankruptcy. That discharge order meant the creditors would have to pursue that debt through bankruptcy. But it also left unresolved the creditors’ request to declare the existence of that debt. The Fourth Circuit held that the parties could not secure an appeal from the discharge decision by voluntarily dismissing this remaining request without prejudice.…

Until recently, several courts of appeals limited the scope of appeals to the orders designated in the notice of appeal. Recent amendments to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 3(c) were supposed to end that practice. But those amendments also provided a way for litigants to limit the scope of an appeal.…