Opinion ID: 787380
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Review for Jurisdiction

Text: 10 Before proceeding to the merits of the Ortegas' arguments on appeal, we are obliged to assess whether we have jurisdiction to review on direct appeal the assessment of attorney's fees and costs placed on a conditional voluntary dismissal pursuant to FRCP 41(a)(2). 3 11 The district court grants a 41(a)(2) dismissal only in its discretion, and the authority to attach conditions to the order of dismissal `prevents defendants from being unfairly affected' thereby. Yoffe v. Keller Ind., Inc., 580 F.2d 126, 129 (5th Cir.1978) (citing LeCompte v. Mr. Chip, Inc., 528 F.2d 601, 604 (5th Cir.1976)). 4 12 In general, a party cannot appeal from an order granting a Rule 41(a)(2) dismissal. LeCompte, 528 F.2d at 603. Although a dismissal without prejudice can qualify as a final judgment, a plaintiff cannot appeal therefrom, since it does not qualify as an involuntary adverse judgment so far as the plaintiff is concerned. Id. This can be easily understood since the plaintiff has acquired that which he sought, the dismissal of his action and the right to bring a later suit on the same cause of action, without adjudication of the merits. Id. (citing Maryland Cas. Co. v. Latham, 41 F.2d 312, 313 (5th Cir.1930)). 13 [T]he appealability of an order depends upon its effect rather than its language. LeCompte, 528 F.2d at 603 (citations and quotations omitted). Therefore, we must decide whether conditioning a voluntary dismissal without prejudice on payment of attorney's fees and costs creates sufficient legal prejudice to satisfy our adversity requirements for a direct appeal when no motion to withdraw the dismissal was made in the district court. 14 The old Fifth Circuit, in LeCompte v. Mr. Chip, Inc., 528 F.2d 601, 603 (1976), departed from the general no-appeal rule by concluding that what was nominally a voluntary dismissal without prejudice was effectively a dismissal with prejudice for purposes of appeal given the nature of the conditions assessed by the district court. Id. The conditions in LeCompte, however, did not involve payment of attorney's fees and costs. The conditions in LeCompte involved a limitation on where and how a subsequent suit could be brought: conditions that would arguably bar a later refiled action unless the conditions were met and, thus, conditions that would not leave the plaintiff in the refiled suit nearly in the same position as if the first suit — the one voluntarily dismissed — had never been filed. 5 Id. at 603-04. The LeCompte court stated: 15 In one sense, any requirement imposed upon a plaintiff as a condition for allowing him a voluntary dismissal amounts to some degree of prejudice to his action, as a practical matter. Our research indicates, however, that generally the conditions imposed do not create prejudice in a legal sense to the bringing of another suit. Rather, the usual conditions attached to a voluntary dismissal involve prejudice only in a practical sense (e.g., paying costs or expenses, producing documents, producing witnesses). The imposition of this type condition does not amount to the type of legal prejudice which would entitle a plaintiff to appeal the grant of the dismissal he obtains. 16 Id. at 603. The Ninth Circuit, in Unioil, Inc. v. E.F. Hutton & Co., Inc., 809 F.2d 548 (9th Cir.1986), addressed whether a party, having failed timely to seek to withdraw their motion for voluntary dismissal, could then appeal from the voluntary dismissal based on its having been conditioned upon attorney's fees and costs. Id. at 554-56. That court concluded that a condition of costs and attorney's fees does not involve legal prejudice and therefore does not render a conditional voluntary dismissal adverse and appealable. 6 Id. at 557. 17 There being only an assessment of attorney's fees and costs as the condition to this voluntary dismissal, we see no legal prejudice from the dismissal; thus we, in this case, have no jurisdiction for a direct appeal of the conditions. 18 We stress that in this case plaintiffs never sought in the district court to withdraw the voluntary dismissal. This circumstance could make a difference. In the past, we have reviewed on direct appeal whether a district court abused its discretion by denying a plaintiff's request to withdraw a voluntary dismissal. In McGregor v. Bd. of Comm'rs of Palm Beach County, 956 F.2d 1017 (11th Cir.1992), the plaintiff requested a voluntary dismissal without prejudice. Id. at 1018-19. The McGregor district court granted the dismissal, but reserved the question of fees and costs. Id. at 1019. Later the McGregor district court decided to assess a certain amount of fees and costs on the plaintiff. Id. The plaintiff, after learning the specific amount of fees and costs the district court had assessed, then unsuccessfully sought — in the district court — to withdraw the voluntary dismissal. Id. 19 In assessing our jurisdiction in the McGregor case, we looked to the Ninth Circuit's Unioil case — as persuasive authority — where that court set out the general rule that an appeal cannot follow from an order granting a voluntary dismissal of an action in a case where no timely motion to withdraw had been asserted. Unioil, Inc. v. E.F. Hutton & Co., Inc., 809 F.2d 548, 554-56 (9th Cir.1987). 20 But this Court in McGregor pointed out that, unlike Unioil, there had been in McGregor a motion in the district court to withdraw the voluntary dismissal and that a denial of the motion to withdraw was something from which the plaintiff could appeal. McGregor, 956 F.2d at 1021. The motion to withdraw the voluntary dismissal was a material fact for the McGregor decision on appealability. Our authority to review in McGregor was thus distinguished from our usual lack of authority to review a plaintiff's appeal simply seeking direct appellate review of an order dismissing an action pursuant to a plaintiff's voluntary dismissal motion under Rule 41(a)(2). 7 21 In this case, never at any point after the district court, in March 2001, granted the Ortegas' request to dismiss voluntarily did the Ortegas seek to withdraw their request for a dismissal. The Ortegas knew that some substantial amount of fees and costs would be owed after the district court's order in July 2001. 8 Yet the Ortegas chose to proceed with disputing what amount should constitute an appropriate 41(a)(2) condition rather than to seek to withdraw. 22 At the very least, the Ortegas might have moved to withdraw the voluntary dismissal after learning the exact amount owed: the amount eventually determined in the November 2002 order. If the district court then denied that motion, a review of whether the nature of the conditions was so onerous that the district court would have abused its discretion by not letting the plaintiffs withdraw their voluntary dismissal request might have been a possibility. 23 The conditions placed on the voluntary dismissal in this case do not amount to legal prejudice (that is, severely limit the filing of a new lawsuit). In addition, the Ortegas in district court never sought to withdraw the voluntary dismissal. Either legal prejudice or a motion to withdraw the dismissal might support a direct appeal. Given that neither of these circumstances was present in this case, the voluntary dismissal without prejudice was not adverse to the Ortegas; and the assessment of costs and fees was not appealable. 24 DISMISSED.