Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca8-04-01660/USCOURTS-ca8-04-01660-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Jon A. Kiser
Appellee
Murlin R. Phillips
Appellant

Document Text:

United States Court of Appeals

FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

___________

No. 04-1660

___________

Murlin R. Phillips, *

*

Appellant, *

* Appeal from the United States

v. * District Court for the Eastern

* District of Missouri.

Jon A. Kiser, Wayne *

County Prosecutor, * [UNPUBLISHED]

*

Appellee. *

___________

Submitted: December 30, 2004

Filed: January 10, 2005

___________

Before MURPHY, BYE, and SMITH, Circuit Judges.

___________

PER CURIAM.

Missouri inmate Murlin Phillips appeals from the district court’s preservice

dismissal of his fee-paid 42 U.S.C. § 1983 complaint against Wayne County

Prosecutor Jon Kiser. 

We conclude that we lack jurisdiction over Phillips’s appeal, because the order

Phillips challenges is not a final appealable order. See 28 U.S.C. § 1291 (creating

appellate jurisdiction over final decisions of district courts); Thomas v. Basham, 931

F.2d 521, 522-24 (8th Cir. 1991) (appellate courts have obligation to raise

jurisdictional issues sua sponte “when there is an indication that jurisdiction is

Appellate Case: 04-1660 Page: 1 Date Filed: 01/10/2005 Entry ID: 1853270 
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lacking”). Phillips’s complaint included allegations that Kiser had him transferred

to a different prison and held in solitary confinement, interfering with his ability to

prepare a defense in his state court criminal case. The district court’s order did not

address this claim. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 54(b) (“order or other form of decision,

however designated, which adjudicates fewer than all the claims or the rights and

liabilities of fewer than all the parties shall not terminate the action as to any of the

claims or parties”). 

Accordingly, we dismiss this appeal without prejudice. We deny Phillips’s

pending motions.

______________________________

Appellate Case: 04-1660 Page: 2 Date Filed: 01/10/2005 Entry ID: 1853270