Opinion ID: 2978978
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: A preliminary issue raised by this appeal is our jurisdiction over it. After Federal filed this appeal, Abercrombie moved to dismiss, asserting that the district court’s January 2009 interlocutory order was not an appealable injunction under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1).7 A motions panel first considered this issue and in June 2009 denied the motion without prejudice, noting decisions from the Ninth and Eleventh Circuits allowing the 6 The order states: Subject to the $1 million retention and the $10 million limit in Federal Policy No. 8159-6213, Federal is hereby ORDERED to advance payment for the following categories of costs that Plaintiff has incurred and will incur in the future: 1) All reasonable costs incurred by Abercrombie or its current or former officers or directors to defend Ross v. Abercrombie, No. 2:05-cv-819 (S.D. Ohio); 2) All reasonable costs incurred by Abercrombie or its current or former officers or directors to defend In re Abercrombie & Fitch Co. Derivative Litigation, Lead Case No. 2:05-cv-819 (S.D. Ohio); and 3) All reasonable costs incurred by Abercrombie to investigate or evaluate whether it is in Abercrombie’s best interest to prosecute the claims raised in the shareholder derivative suits, up to the Policy’s $250,000 limit (see Federal Policy, pp. 1 and 12); 4) All reasonable costs incurred by Abercrombie in connection with the Order Directing Private Investigation and Designating Officers to Take Testimony, SEC File No. P-1305, after November 30, 2005, the date of the Order, to the extent such costs were incurred with respect to a Claim, as defined by the Federal Policy. (Citation omitted.) 7 The final judgment rule, codified at 28 U.S.C. § 1291, generally limits federal courts of appeals’ jurisdiction to final decisions of the district courts; in the next section, certain interlocutory decisions of the district courts are excepted from the rule, giving us jurisdiction over orders “granting, continuing, modifying, refusing or dissolving injunctions, or refusing to dissolve or modify injunctions . . . .” 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1). No. 09-3096 7 immediate appeals of interlocutory orders directing insurers to advance litigation expenses.8 Abercrombie maintains in its merits brief that the January 2009, non-final order of the district court is neither injunctive nor meets the requirements of Carson v. American Brands, Inc., 450 U.S. 79 (1981) for other non-final orders: that a district court’s appealable interlocutory order have a “serious, perhaps irreparable consequence,” and can only be “effectually challenged” by immediate appeal. Id. at 84 (quoting Baltimore Contractors v. Bodinger, 348 U.S. 176, 181 (1955)). In Pacific Insurance Co. v. General Development Corp., 28 F.3d 1093, 1096 (11th Cir. 1994), the Eleventh Circuit considered whether an interlocutory partial summary judgment order directing insurance payments to insureds, pending resolution of the insurer’s claim for rescission of the policy, was appealable under § 1292(a)(1). In its summary ruling that it had jurisdiction over the appeal, the court relied on National Union Fire Insurance Co. v. Sahlen, 999 F.2d 1532 (11th Cir. 1993). Sahlen is a case in which the plaintiff insurer filed a complaint for rescission of an insurance contract based on the defendants’ alleged misrepresentations in the application for insurance, which was ultimately resolved in the insurer’s favor on its motion for summary judgment. Although it entered judgment, the district court reserved jurisdiction over the insurer’s claim for reimbursement of payments for defense costs it had made prior to filing its suit for recission. On appeal, concerned that this reservation of jurisdiction over the reimbursement issue precluded appellate jurisdiction, the Eleventh Circuit submitted a sua 8 See Pac. Ins. Co. v. Gen. Dev. Corp., 28 F.3d 1093, 1096 (11th Cir. 1994); Gon v. First State Ins. Co., 871 F.2d 863, 875 (9th Cir. 1989). No. 09-3096 8 sponte question of jurisdiction to the litigants. Citing Gon v. First State Ins. Co., 871 F.2d 863 (9th Cir. 1989), the panel determined that the district court’s rulings in connection with the insureds’ motion for partial summary judgment requesting payment of defense costs pending a decision on the complaint for rescission constituted grants of or modifications of an injunction, over which it had jurisdiction under § 1292(a)(1). Gon similarly held that a district court’s order modifying its own earlier direction to an insurer to pay defense expenses in certain litigation as they were incurred was an appealable order under § 1292(a)(1). See Gon, 871 F.2d at 866.9 As argued by Federal, the relief sought by Abercrombie’s amended complaint includes a judgment “enjoining Federal from failing and refusing to pay” certain defense costs. (Emphasis added.) Additionally, the order appears to fit the requirements set forth in Gon—citing 16 C. Wright, A. Miller, E. Cooper, & E. Gressman, Federal Practice & Procedure: Jurisdiction § 3922 at 29 (1977)—that it is enforceable by contempt, and is “designed to accord or protect some or all of the substantive relief sought by a complaint in more than temporary fashion.” Gon, 871 F.2d at 865. In line with Gon and Sahlen, we determine that the district court’s grant of partial summary judgment was an injunctive order, over which we have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1).