Opinion ID: 170980
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: WULA's Appeal: The Refusal to Dismiss Claims Pertaining to the Rock Springs Property

Text: The bankruptcy court's refusal to dismiss claims pertaining to the Rock Springs property is not an appealable collateral order because it is not effectively unreviewable on appeal from entry of a final judgment in the adversary proceeding. WULA suggests that it will irrevocably lose the right to defend these claims in a single forum (the receivership proceeding in Washington state court) unless we permit review now, but this argument fails because WULA has no such right. See Cent. States, Se. & Sw. Areas Health & Welfare Fund v. Old Sec. Life Ins. Co., 600 F.2d 671, 677 (7th Cir.1979) (holding that a delinquent insurance company did not have a right to a single-state forum through application of the McCarran-Ferguson Act and the Missouri Insurance Act, and thus the district court's refusal to dismiss claims was not appealable under the collateral-order doctrine). The Washington Uniform Insurers Liquidation Act does not itself create an exclusive forum in Washington state court. Rather, the Act expressly contemplates that separate claims may be tried in other forums; for example, the Act authorizes the receivership court to stay proceedings when an action should be brought in a forum outside the state. See WASH. REV.CODE ANN. § 48.31.111(4); see also Old Sec. Life Ins., 600 F.2d at 677 (reasoning that the Missouri Insurance Act does not create an exclusive single-state forum). Furthermore, to the extent WULA argues that the collateral-order exception applies because the state court injunction divests the bankruptcy court of jurisdiction, its argument fails because this jurisdictional question may be reviewed on appeal from a final judgment. As a general rule, the denial of a motion to dismiss, even when the motion is based upon jurisdictional grounds, is not immediately reviewable. In re Magic Circle, 889 F.2d at 954 (emphasis added) (quotation omitted). Thus, the denial of WULA's motion to dismiss is not a final collateral order entitled to immediate review.