Posts in category “Appellate Decisions”

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.…

When a district court grants relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2255, it can choose from among several different remedies. Among those remedies are (1) correcting the petitioner’s sentence and (2) conducting a full resentencing. Successful § 2255 petitioners who want to challenge their new sentence can appeal under 28 U.S.C.…

Courts have held that when an “order” is appealable—say, via a certified appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b) or an exception to 28 U.S.C. § 1447(d)’s bar on remand appeals—the entirety of the district court’s order is within the scope of appeal. So when a district court certifies an order for an immediate appeal under § 1292(b), the entire order is within the scope of appeal, not just the issue that the district court thought warranted review.…

In National ATM Council, Inc. v. Visa, Inc., the D.C. Circuit offered a rare explanation for granting a petition to appeal a class-certification grant under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(f). The reasons given were particularly interesting.…

In United States v. Rivera-Rodríguez, the First Circuit held that the government can appeal from orders granting a criminal defendant’s request for compassionate release. Although several courts of appeals have reviewed these appeals, few have addressed their jurisdiction to do so in any depth. But the issue requires some thought—as the Rivera-Rodríguez panel noted, “[t]he government has no right of appeal in criminal cases except where a statute expressly grants such a right.”…

In Harris v. Medical Transportation Management, Inc., the D.C. Circuit reviewed (and reversed) a grant of class certification. But it refused to use pendent appellate jurisdiction to review certification of a collective action under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The court explained that class actions and collective actions “are fundamentally different creatures.”…

In In re Municipal Stormwater Pond Coordinated Litigation, a split Eighth Circuit held that it lacked jurisdiction to review the resolution of some claims when the parties conditionally dismissed other claims.

The parties agreed that, should the Eighth Circuit reverse, the voluntarily dismissed claims could be reinstated. But if the Eighth Circuit affirmed, the voluntarily dismissed claims were forever lost.…

In Parrish v. United States, a divided Fourth Circuit dismissed an appeal because the would-be appellant did not file a second notice of appeal after the district court reopened the appeal time under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(6). An earlier notice of appeal—which the Fourth Circuit had construed as a motion to reopen the appeal time—was insufficient.…