Court Opinion

ID: 9447458
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 22:35:44.167848+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:03.374957
License: Public Domain

CLARK, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
Here is yet another example of the continuous muddle in our circuit with respect to interlocutory appeals. This is an unusual recognition of such appeals. In a copyright infringement action involving a work of art reproduced on textiles, plaintiff sought and was granted a preliminary injunction pending suit. Thereafter it moved for summary judgment on affidavits, and now has appealed from the denial of its motion. In this classic case of nonadjudication, my brothers have now accepted the appeal, holding themselves bound by the doctrine of Federal Glass Co. v. Loshin, 2 Cir., 224 F.2d 100, and have reversed with directions for further consideration of the summary judgment motion and with suggestions as to how the gaps in proof may be filled upon further hearing. This has happened in a circuit well known in the past for its condemnation of “trial by affidavits” and its general insistence upon full-dress trials. Both the decision and the opinion seem bound to increase the confusion as to appealability already manifest. At the earliest possible moment I requested a hearing by the full court; since that has been denied by majority vote, I feel I should point out through the only means available the inadequate bases in precedent and policy for the decision in the hope of assisting in eventual clarification of issues so uniquely bothersome in this circuit.
In thus accepting the binding force of the Loshin rule I believe the court has erred in several particulars, as pointed out in my dissenting opinion in Glenmore v. Ahern, 2 Cir., 276 F.2d 525, 549, which appears not to have been made available to the panel before decision.1 First, it has not counted noses accurately; there seems a practically even split among the active judges. And this may be a generous count, since the three judges voting to follow the Loshin principle have not had occasion to act in the same case; as there is doubt in any event how far the principle is to be pressed in a given case — does it apply, for example, to an order of continuance? — it would be dangerous to prophesy as to future decisions. Next the court has overlooked several recent decisions — following Supreme Court leadership — holding that calendar orders in an equity action are not appealable as denials of injunction. Then it overlooks a number of important recent holdings against appeal-ability obviously in point, though a separate issue was not made as to the denial of an injunction. Finally it ignores the practically unanimous course of decision in other circuits and in state courts following the federal rules, as well as the informed views of text writers.2 This is too heavy a load of solid professional view to be lightly cast aside. For documentation I refer to the citations in my dissent in Glenmore v. Ahern, supra.
Perhaps even more important than this impressive weight of precedent are the reasons of policy behind it. A district judge’s orders advancing a case to trial ought not to be critically examined and re-examined by the cumbersome method of appeal before he has approached the stage of adjudication. Indeed, I do not understand that anyone desires to press the Loshin principle to its logical conclusion; some pre-trial steps surely remain in the discretion of the trial judge. The result is that we are having a kind of selective and discrimi*806natory harassment of trial judges, quite unpredictable in its scope and incidence. I believe this an intolerable burden for us, an improper and uncertain interference with trial court discretion, and a confusing invitation to indiscriminate appeals in the future — all contrary to settled federal law against piecemeal appeals. I hope we can soon return to this sound federal view.

. This expands with additional citations Judge Waterman’s original dissent filed Jan. 29, 1960, 276 F.2d 547.

. Only a single early and unclear case from another circuit affords any support for the Loshin rule.