Opinion ID: 730831
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Resolution of Certification Question

Text: 18 To comply with the statute requires two steps: first, a trial judge's certification; and, second, an appellate court's grant of leave to appeal the district court's certification. Such a certification comes before a motions panel of this Court and its grant of leave to appeal is provisional since the merits panel that hears the certified appeal is free to review that subject again. Unlike the motions panel, the merits panel has the benefit of a record and full briefing of the issues certified. 19 Although asked to review the district court's initial determination of a prima facie showing of in personam jurisdiction, we conclude that this issue is prematurely before us. Even if we affirm the district court, that court will still need to determine whether Koehler can meet his ultimate burden of showing personal jurisdiction over Bank of Bermuda by a preponderance of the evidence at a later stage of the trial proceedings. If we reverse, Koehler insists we must remand to the district court to permit him discovery. When the question of discovery was raised in the trial court, the court declined to rule on it. Hence, either way we rule, a remand will be required. Moreover, since the exercise of personal jurisdiction over a foreign parent corporation through a resident subsidiary is a question of law which turns on a thorough examination of the facts defining the relationship between the two corporations, we are reluctant to rely on what may turn out to be an incomplete record to clarify legal doctrine for the district court's guidance. 20 Section 1292(b) vests review of an interlocutory order within our discretion and we may decline at any time to decide the issue presented. We have permitted an appeal to be taken when the interlocutory order involves issues of in personam jurisdiction. See Klinghoffer v. S.N.C. Achille Lauro, 921 F.2d 21, 24 (2d Cir.1990); Leasco Data Processing Equip. Corp. v. Maxwell, 468 F.2d 1326, 1330 (2d Cir.1972). Yet, § 1292(b) was not meant to substitute an appellate court's judgment for that of the trial court. In Link v. Mercedes-Benz of N. America, Inc., 550 F.2d 860, 863 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 431 U.S. 933, 97 S.Ct. 2641, 53 L.Ed.2d 250 (1977), the Third Circuit held that the district court's certification of the class in a class action suit is an inappropriate order for interlocutory appeal because the district court has such broad discretion under Rule 23(c) to revise its class action determination before a final decision on the merits. 21 As an exercise of our discretion, we have, on occasion reconsidered an earlier decision to permit appeal from an interlocutory order. Int'l Soc. for Krishna Consciousness, Inc. v. Air Canada, 727 F.2d 253, 255 (2d Cir.1984) (per curiam); Slade v. Shearson, Hammill & Co., 517 F.2d 398, 400 (2d Cir.1974). This is one of those occasions. We decline to rule on the important issues raised on this appeal until final judgment has been rendered in the district court. See Oneida Indian Nation v. County of Oneida, 622 F.2d 624, 628 (2d Cir.1980) (declining to decide issues that might vanish upon full development of the factual record). Our premature treatment of this issue would risk the development of unsound precedent in an area with great practical implications for the banking industry.