Opinion ID: 330731
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Pretrial Orders

Text: 27 Also before us in the instant appeal is the claim of the plaintiffs that Judge Griesa improperly refused to grant certain procedural requests below. In particular, the Browning group moved the district court to compel certain pre-trial discovery proceedings and their recording on tape, purportedly pursuant to Rules 16 and 56(d) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. These motions were denied by the district court, and the plaintiffs now ask this court to reverse. 28 We do not reach the substance of the plaintiffs' position because the district court's disposition of these pretrial motions is not subject to appellate review at the present time. Such review is precluded by the long-standing rule that, generally speaking, only the final decisions of district courts are appealable. See 28 U.S.C. § 1291. Since motions for discovery are of an interlocutory, rather than a final, nature, they may not be reviewed by this court until the entire proceeding before the district court is concluded. 5 In the instant case, the plaintiffs' lawsuit remains very much alive as claims three, four and five asserting bondholder rights have yet to be adjudicated by the district court. 6 Accordingly, it is inappropriate for us to review these procedural decisions at the present time. 29 Plaintiffs argue that these pretrial procedural decisions are nevertheless appealable under the doctrine of Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 69 S.Ct. 1221, 93 L.Ed. 1528 (1949). We disagree. In Cohen, the Supreme Court held that a small class of interlocutory orders are appealable when they present issues which are of great importance and which are collateral to the main lawsuit before the district court. Plaintiffs' pretrial motions do not, in our judgment, fall within this class. While plaintiffs of the Browning group are understandably concerned about the time and money they seek to save through pretrial discovery under their proposed methods, we do not believe that their motions present a sufficiently compelling question to justify piecemeal appellate review. See, American Express Warehousing, Ltd. v. Transamerican Insurance Co., 380 F.2d 277, 280 (2d Cir. 1967). 30 Accordingly, we dismiss the appeal from the pretrial orders of the district court.