Opinion ID: 504696
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: 13 Admittedly, the government is, as a matter of jurisdiction, between a rock and a hard place. This court has indicated that it did not consider the district court's orders of dismissal to be final, and hence appealable, while the district court says that its orders were final. An intervening development in the law of this circuit has relieved this jurisdictional pressure. 14 In Schuurman v. Motor Vessel Betty K V, 798 F.2d 442 (11th Cir.1986), the district court granted a defendant's motion to dismiss for lack of in personam jurisdiction, but allowed the plaintiff 20 days from the date of the dismissal order to amend the complaint. The district court then denied the plaintiff's motion for reconsideration. The plaintiff failed to amend, believing that the denial of his motion for reconsideration was final. An appeal followed. We reviewed our decision in Czeremcha v. International Association of Machinists, 724 F.2d 1552 (11th Cir.1984), along with United States v. Mayton, 335 F.2d 153 (5th Cir.1964), and United Steelworkers v. American International Aluminum Corp., 334 F.2d 147 (5th Cir.1964), cert. denied, 379 U.S. 991, 85 S.Ct. 702, 13 L.Ed.2d 611 (1965), and held that 15 [i]n dismissing the complaint, the district court may also provide for a stated period within which a plaintiff may amend the complaint. If the plaintiff does not amend the complaint within the time allowed, no amendment may be made absent leave of court, and the dismissal order becomes final at the end of the stated period. For appeal purposes, we hold that the order of dismissal in this situation becomes final upon the expiration of the time allowed for amendment. 16 798 F.2d at 445. 3 In accordance with the rule announced in Schuurman, the district court's orders of dismissal became final when the United States failed to amend its complaints within the period specified by the district court. 4 This court, therefore, has jurisdiction over these appeals.