Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca10-24-04115/USCOURTS-ca10-24-04115-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Erika Jacobs
Appellant
Salt Lake International Airport
Appellee

Document Text:

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT

_________________________________

ERIKA JACOBS, 

 Plaintiff - Appellant,

v.

SALT LAKE INTERNATIONAL 

AIRPORT, 

 Defendant - Appellee.

No. 24-4115

(D.C. No. 2:24-CV-00299-JNP-DAO)

(D. Utah)

_________________________________

ORDER

_________________________________

Before PHILLIPS, McHUGH, and ROSSMAN, Circuit Judges.

_________________________________

This matter is before us sua sponte to consider the court’s jurisdiction over this 

appeal. See Hill v. Vanderbilt Cap. Advisors, LLC, 702 F.3d 1220, 1223 (10th Cir. 2012) 

(this court has “an independent duty to examine [its] own jurisdiction”).

Appellant Erika Jacobs filed several motions seeking to have the magistrate judge 

disqualified and/or recused. [ECF Nos. 19, 22, 26]. Those motions were denied, and Ms. 

Jacobs appealed. [ECF Nos. 24 (denying ECF Nos. 19 and 22); 29 (denying ECF No. 

26); 30 (notice of appeal)].

We entered an order directing Ms. Jacobs to explain the basis for this court’s 

jurisdiction over this appeal. We have before us Ms. Jacobs’s response to that order. 

Upon consideration of Ms. Jacobs’s response to our order, the district court docket, and 

FILED

United States Court of Appeals

Tenth Circuit

December 3, 2024

Christopher M. Wolpert

Clerk of Court

Appellate Case: 24-4115 Document: 6-1 Date Filed: 12/03/2024 Page: 1
2

the applicable law, we conclude that we lack jurisdiction over this appeal for the 

following reasons. 

This court generally has jurisdiction to hear appeals from “final decisions” of 

district courts. 28 U.S.C. § 1291. A final decision is one that “ends the litigation on the 

merits and leaves nothing for the court to do but execute judgment.” Cunningham v. 

Hamilton Cnty., Ohio, 527 U.S. 198, 204 (1999) (internal quotations omitted). Further, 

orders denying a motion to recuse and/or disqualify are not appealable before the district 

court has entered a final judgment. See, e.g., Kellogg v. Watts Guerra LLP, 41 F.4th 

1246, 1259 (10th Cir. 2022); Lopez v. Behles (In re Am. Ready Mix, Inc.), 14 F.3d 1497, 

1499 (10th Cir. 1994).

Here, the district court has not entered any order that ended this litigation on the 

merits. Indeed, the magistrate judge has recommended the case be dismissed for lack of 

subject matter jurisdiction, and Ms. Jacobs has objected to that recommendation, but the 

district court has not yet considered the recommendation or Ms. Jacobs’s objections to it. 

[ECF Nos. 27-28]. The district court has not entered a final decision in this matter, and 

under our precedent, the orders Ms. Jacobs seeks to appeal cannot be appealed before the 

district court has entered a final judgment. Consequently, we are without jurisdiction to 

consider this appeal.

APPEAL DISMISSED.

Entered for the Court

CHRISTOPHER M. WOLPERT, Clerk

Appellate Case: 24-4115 Document: 6-1 Date Filed: 12/03/2024 Page: 2