Opinion ID: 752161
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Statutorily-Appealable Interlocutory Orders

Text: 20 In addition to final decisions and the small category of cases that must be considered final under the collateral order doctrine, federal appellate courts have jurisdiction over four types of interlocutory decisions. The courts of appeal can hear appeals from interlocutory orders granting, modifying, or dissolving injunctions; interlocutory orders appointing receivers or refusing orders to wind up receiverships; interlocutory orders determining the rights and liabilities of the parties to admiralty cases; and interlocutory orders that the district court certifies for immediate appeal because the orders are pivotal and debatable. See 28 U.S.C. § 1292. 21 The district court did not certify the CERCLA order or the state law order for immediate appeal, and neither order concerns receiverships or admiralty. Thus, to fall under the statutory provisions allowing immediate appeal of interlocutory orders, the summary adjudication orders must be orders granting, continuing, modifying, refusing or dissolving injunctions. 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1). 22 After finding the defendants liable for creating a public nuisance and violating California's environmental laws, the district court issued an injunction requiring the defendants to abate the public nuisance that the trichloroethylene contamination had caused. Although the district court found that the defendants were also liable for California's investigation costs under CERCLA, it did not issue an injunction that required the defendants to reimburse California. Thus, the injunction that the court issued concerned the defendants' liability under state nuisance and environmental laws, not their liability under CERCLA. 23 We therefore have jurisdiction over the interlocutory order finding the defendants liable under state law because it is part of an order granting an injunction. The interlocutory order finding the defendants liable under CERCLA, on the other hand, is not part of the order granting the injunction. The CERCLA order therefore falls under none of the statutory provisions that allow for immediate interlocutory appeal.