Opinion ID: 197774
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: flotsam and jetsam

Text: 63 Cabletron, RMA, and the City of Manchester also have attempted to appeal from orders of the district court not directly related to intervention. Because we affirm the denial of their motions to intervene, they lack standing to press any other issues before this court. See SEC v. Certain Unknown Purchasers of the Common Stock of and Call Options for the Common Stock of Santa Fe Int'l Corp., 817 F.2d 1018, 1021-22 (2d Cir.1987). Hence, we take no view of either their putative appeals of the district court's May 13 and July 7 orders or their characterization of those orders as modifications to, or extensions of, a de facto preliminary injunction. 64 In a closely related initiative, all the appellants, relying on Railroad Comm'n v. Pullman Co., 312 U.S. 496, 61 S.Ct. 643, 85 L.Ed. 971 (1941) and Burford v. Sun Oil Co., 319 U.S. 315, 63 S.Ct. 1098, 87 L.Ed. 1424 (1943), invite us to scrutinize the district court's unwillingness to abstain from deciding this case. We decline the invitation. A district court's refusal to abstain under doctrines like Pullman or Burford is not an immediately appealable event. See Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. v. Mayacamas Corp., 485 U.S. 271, 278, 108 S.Ct. 1133, 1137-38, 99 L.Ed.2d 296 (1988). Thus, acceding to the appellants' request would place this court in the bizarre situation of deciding a nonappealable order at the behest of non-parties. 65 Let us be perfectly clear. We recognize that the appellants make some strong arguments in support of abstention. The district court, if it so chooses, is free to revisit the issue. At this point in the litigation, however, that court is the only tribunal with authority to address the question.