Opinion ID: 199490
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: 17 Before reaching the merits, we address an argument offered by Lopez-Gerena as a challenge to our jurisdiction over the subject matter of this appeal. Although confusingly presented, the thrust of Lopez- Gerena's contention is that the plaintiffs lost their right to have this Court review the punitive damages issue, in any form, by failing to respond to the district court's ruling on the defendants' motion for clarification. Lopez-Gerena asserts that the district court's May 1999 order, stating that the plaintiffs had withdrawn any claim of punitive damages, constituted a conclusive determination by the district court that its consideration of the punitive damages issue was at an end. When the plaintiffs did not appeal the order within the thirty days allowed by Fed. R. App. P. 4(a)(1)(A), Lopez-Gerena argues, the order became final, and that deprived this Court of jurisdiction on any matter related to the Municipality's liability for payment of punitive damages. 18 Lopez-Gerena's argument is without merit. To begin with, the record does not support Lopez-Gerena's premise that the district court's ruling on the motion for clarification was meant to, or effectively did, signal an end to the court's consideration of the punitive damages issue. It is true that the ambiguous language of the margin order could be read as a statement that the court considered the issue to have been permanently withdrawn. However, the district court's subsequent actions belie such an interpretation. If the court understood its clarification ruling to have finally disposed of the punitive damages issue, we think it only logical that the protective order would have been granted on that basis. Yet the court's written opinion offers a different explanation, grounding the protective order in Humacao's supposed immunity from punitive damages liability -- a merits issue that, by Lopez-Gerena's reasoning, was no longer even before the court. Lopez-Gerena has advanced no compelling reason why we should accord the district court's earlier order a preclusive effect that the district court itself did not observe or even acknowledge, and we decline to do so. 19 Furthermore, even if the district court's grant of a protective order had been premised on its earlier, unappealed determination that the punitive damages issue had been withdrawn, we still would have jurisdiction over this appeal of the protective order. 11 The defendants do not dispute that the notice of appeal was timely filed with respect to this order. We also think it evident that this order was, under the circumstances, final decision of the district court and thus within the jurisdictional grant conferred by 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291. 12 As a result, our jurisdiction over the subject matter of this appeal stands on solid ground, and we proceed to its merits. 20