Opinion ID: 779120
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Appellate Jurisdiction under the Collateral Order Doctrine

Text: 13 Although the dismissal without prejudice here is not inherently a final decision, it may be a final decision appealable under the collateral order doctrine. The collateral order doctrine allows immediate appeal of an order that (1) conclusively determines the disputed question; (2) resolves an important issue completely separate from the merits of the action; and (3) is effectively unreviewable on appeal from a final judgment. Johnson v. Jones, 515 U.S. 304, 310, 115 S.Ct. 2151, 132 L.Ed.2d 238 (1995); Cohen v. Beneficial Indus. Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 545-46, 69 S.Ct. 1221, 93 L.Ed. 1528 (1949) (explaining that the collateral order doctrine applied only to that small class of cases, which finally determine claims of right separable from, and collateral to, rights asserted in the action, too important to be denied review and too independent of the cause itself to require that appellate consideration be deferred until the whole case is adjudicated); Manion v. Evans, 986 F.2d 1036, 1038 (6th Cir.1993). 14 Yeager's appeal satisfies the first two prongs of the collateral order doctrine, but fails the third. The first requirement is met because Yeager's appeal would conclusively determine whether the district court erred in dismissing his case without prejudice. The second prong is also satisfied because Yeager's appeal arises out of the government's abuse of the discovery rules. As a result, the appeal is completely separate from the merits underlying the action. Yeager cannot meet the third prong because the district court's order is reviewable through non-interlocutory appeal. To satisfy the third prong, the lack of an immediate appeal must strip a party of its ability to preserve a right or an immunity. See, e.g., Richardson v. United States, 468 U.S. 317, 322, 104 S.Ct. 3081, 82 L.Ed.2d 242 (1984) (holding that a denial of motion to dismiss on double jeopardy grounds is immediately appealable); Abney v. United States, 431 U.S. 651, 659, 97 S.Ct. 2034, 52 L.Ed.2d 651 (1977) (same); Stack v. Boyle, 342 U.S. 1, 4, 72 S.Ct. 1, 96 L.Ed. 3 (1951) (holding that a denial of motion to reduce bail is immediately appealable); Keller v. Cent. Bank of Nigeria, 277 F.3d 811, 815 (6th Cir.2002) (holding that a denial of sovereign immunity is immediately appealable); Klein v. Long, 275 F.3d 544, 549 (6th Cir.2001), petition for cert. filed, 70 U.S.L.W. 3758 (May 28, 2002) (No. 01-1742) (holding that a denial of qualified immunity is immediately appealable); Ward v. Dyke, 58 F.3d 271, 273 (6th Cir.1995) (same); see generally Manion, 986 F.2d at 1039 ([O]rders denying rights that do not include protection from burdensome litigation are not immediately appealable.). Yeager does not identify any right or immunity that will be foreclosed through the denial of immediate appeal. Moreover, in the criminal context, this Circuit has identified only two situations where the collateral order doctrine permits interlocutory criminal appeals: denials of motions to dismiss on double jeopardy grounds and denials of motions to reduce bail before trial. Bratcher, 833 F.2d at 72. Yeager does not appeal either of those rights. Because the merits of Yeager's appeal are reviewable later, the third prong of the collateral order doctrine is not satisfied. As a result, the district court's dismissal without prejudice is not an immediately appealable collateral order.