Opinion ID: 780522
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: City's Appeal of Municipal Liability

Text: 17 Because the City failed to raise the issue of municipal liability in the district court, the City's interlocutory appeal of this issue is inappropriate. Moreover, even if the City had raised the issue of municipal liability at the district court level and the district court had rejected that argument, this Court would not have jurisdiction over such an appeal under the collateral order doctrine. See Cohen, 337 U.S. at 545-46, 69 S.Ct. 1221; see also Johnson, 515 U.S. at 310, 115 S.Ct. 2151. Although the first two requirements would be satisfied — determining the question of municipal liability would conclusively determine the City's liability and would not affect any other issue in the case — the City would not be able to satisfy the third element as this Court could effectively review the question of municipal liability after the district court rendered a final judgment. 18 The City also contends that we have jurisdiction over its appeal under principles of pendent appellate jurisdiction. Citing Mattox v. City of Forest Park, the City argues that on interlocutory appeal, where a municipality's right to summary judgment is inextricably intertwined with a qualified immunity analysis, a court may exercise pendent appellate jurisdiction over the municipality's argument. 183 F.3d 515, 523-24 (6th Cir.1999); see also Swint v. Chambers County Comm'n, 514 U.S. 35, 51, 115 S.Ct. 1203, 131 L.Ed.2d 60 (1995). While the City accurately recites the pendent appellate jurisdiction doctrine, its argument ultimately fails. Hamlin's appeal challenges the denial of qualified immunity, which turns on whether there was probable cause for the arrest of the plaintiffs, while the City argues that there was no municipal custom or policy that could form the basis for its § 1983 liability here. Although Hamlin's appeal and the City's appeal overlap in some respects, the two appeals are not inextricably intertwined because resolution of Hamlin's interlocutory appeal of the probable cause issue does not necessarily resolve the City's interlocutory appeal of the municipal policy or custom requirement. See Moore v. City of Wynnewood, 57 F.3d 924, 930 (10th Cir.1995) ([A] pendent appellate claim can be regarded as inextricably intertwined with a properly reviewable claim on collateral appeal only if the pendent claim is coterminous with, or subsumed in, the claim before the court on interlocutory appeal — that is, when the appellate resolution of the collateral appeal necessarily resolves the pendent claim as well.). For that reason, we reject the application of pendent appellate jurisdiction to the City's appeal. Because neither of the City's bases for appellate jurisdiction, the collateral order doctrine or pendent appellate jurisdiction, apply here, we are without jurisdiction to consider the merits of the City's municipal liability defense and we dismiss the City's appeal.