Opinion ID: 1578421
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Necessity of Allowing Permission to Appeal Under Iowa R.App.P. 1(c).

Text: The order which defendants have appealed was entered in response to a motion filed in the mortgage foreclosure action. Such order was clearly not a final judgment under Iowa Rule of Appellate Procedure 1(a). We have no jurisdiction to review it as such. We are empowered, however, under Iowa Rule of Appellate Procedure 1(c), to act upon an appeal improvidently taken from an interlocutory order by treating the papers as an application for permission to appeal in advance of a final judgment. Lerdall Construction Co. v. City of Ossian, 318 N.W.2d 172, 174-76 (Iowa 1982). We have some concern that in the past our application of rule 1(c) has perhaps produced more appeals from interlocutory orders than would have been granted had permission to appeal been sought by the appellant at the outset under rule 2(a). Often the lack of finality does not become apparent to this court until the briefs of the parties have been filed and substantial time has already been consumed in the appeal process. Although dismissal of an appeal at this stage is, arguably, economic waste, permitting the appeal to continue adds to the problem of piecemeal litigation and multiple appeals which the finality requirement is designed to prevent. We therefore must caution counsel for litigants who are dissatisfied with interlocutory rulings against relying on rule 1(c) as a means of avoiding the requirements of rule 2(a). We also invite appellees in such situations to file motions challenging the lack of finality at the earliest opportunity in order to avoid undue time and expense by the parties on an appeal which may ultimately be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. In Lerdall, 318 N.W.2d at 174-76, we made two determinations on the application of rules 1(a), 1(c) and 2(a). The first determination was that the test for granting permission to appeal under rule 1(c) is the same as that which has been applied under rule 2(a). We continue to adhere to this view. The second determination which we made in Lerdall was based on the decision in Dorman v. Credit Reference & Reporting Co., 213 Iowa 1016, 1019, 241 N.W. 436, 438 (1932). In reliance on that decision, we indicated that if a particular ruling or order will inhere in the final judgment so as to be subject to challenge on appeal therefrom, no appeal in advance of final judgment may be allowed. Upon reexamination, we conclude that the criteria for granting appeals in advance of final judgment, which we articulated in Lerdall and Dorman, are unduly rigid. In exceptional situations, the interest of sound and efficient judicial administration can best be served by allowing interlocutory orders to be appealed in advance of final judgment even if such orders will ultimately be reviewable on appeal from the final judgment in the case. These situations will usually involve a pretrial determination of a controlling issue of law as to which there is a substantial basis for a difference of opinion and immediate appellate resolution of the issue will materially advance the progress of the litigation. It is such situations which are made eligible for the granting of an interlocutory appeal in federal court litigation under 28 U.S.C. section 1292(b). See generally Bonner and Appler, Interlocutory Appeals and Mandamus, Litigation, Autumn 1978 at 26-28. We should emphasize that we are talking about exceptional cases. Our departure from the strict criteria of Lerdall and Dorman is in no way intended to temper the disfavor with which we view the granting of applications for interlocutory appeal. The substantial added cost and the attendant delay of up to a year or more should not be visited lightly upon the litigants or the court system. Only a small fraction of such applications are presently granted, and we predict that this opinion will not significantly change that practice. The order from which appeal has been improvidently taken in the present case is the only issue which the appellants wish to litigate. It concerns post-decree remedies and will substantially govern the effect of the final judgment on both the parties and the mortgaged property. We accordingly grant permission to appeal from the said interlocutory order pursuant to rule 1(c).