Opinion ID: 537029
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: denial of appellants' motion for summary judgment

Text: Appellants challenge the trial court's denial of their motion for summary judgment. In so doing, they rely upon the magistrate's report, which recommended partial summary judgment in their favor. Any issue as to the magistrate's report however, is mooted here by the district court's de novo determination that genuine issues of fact existed, precluding summary judgment and requiring trial. United States v. Raddatz, 447 U.S. 667, 100 S.Ct. 2406, 65 L.Ed.2d 424 (1980); Mathews v. Weber, 423 U.S. 261, 96 S.Ct. 549, 46 L.Ed.2d 483 (1976). Whether a denial of a motion for summary judgment is appealable following a jury verdict adverse to the movant appears to be an issue of first impression in this circuit. The better rule appears to have been recently adopted by the Ninth and Federal Circuits and is that such a denial is not properly reviewable on an appeal from the final judgment entered after trial. Locricchio v. Legal Services Corp., 833 F.2d 1352 (9th Cir.1987); Glaros v. H.H. Robertson Co., 797 F.2d 1564 (Fed.Cir.1986), cert. dismissed, 479 U.S. 1072, 107 S.Ct. 1262, 94 L.Ed.2d 124 (1987); Senza-Gel Corp. v. Seiffhart, 803 F.2d 661 (Fed.Cir.1986). We agree with the Ninth and Federal Circuits and here hold that where summary judgment is denied and the movant subsequently loses after a full trial on the merits, the denial of summary judgment may not be appealed. 1 III. STANDARD OF REVIEW OF JURY VERDICTS In Gold v. National Savings Bank of City of Albany, 641 F.2d 430, 434 (6th Cir.1981), this Court acknowledged that it is bound by state law with regard to sufficiency of the evidence in diversity cases: In Tennessee, the rule of law with respect to appellate review of the sufficiency of evidence is that all the evidence for the prevailing party must be taken as true. Moreover, all reasonable inferences favorable to the prevailing party must be made and all countervailing evidence must be disregarded. However, it is also clear that under Tennessee law there must be substantial and material evidence from which the jury could have based a verdict for the prevailing side. [Citations omitted]. In this case, we find that as to all jury issues raised by Defendants, the jury had substantial and material evidence on which to base its verdict for Jarrett.