Court Opinion

ID: 9463406
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:05:27.114269+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:04.674812
License: Public Domain

MESKILL, Circuit Judge
(dissenting):
I respectfully dissent. The majority “assume[s] arguendo that the order [denying class action certification] is appealable,” ante, at 187, and reaches the merits of this controversy, holding that Judge MacMahon did not abuse his discretion. I express no view on the merits, for I cannot agree that the order is appealable.
Under the “death knell” doctrine, the burden is upon the party who asks us to assume jurisdiction to show that the suit will end if class action status is denied. Jelfo v. Hickok Mfg. Co., Inc., 531 F.2d 680, 681 (2d Cir. 1976). Brick has not made the slightest attempt to carry that burden. Instead, he relies on CPC’s concession to the effect that a $4,200 claim is sufficiently small to warrant the application of the “death knell” doctrine.1 While it is true that “death knell” has been primarily a dollar-amount test, this Court has not ignored other factors, see Shayne v. Madison Square Garden Corp., 491 F.2d 397, 402 (2d Cir. 1974), and in this case it is a factor other than the dollar amount that is dispositive.
With due respect to the majority, and apologies to Ernest Hemingway and John Donne,2 the appealability issue presented here can be resolved merely by deciding for whom the knell tolls. It does not toll for Brick or the class he seeks to represent. It tolls for Brick’s law partner, Intrater. That may be a cataclysm for Intrater and his law firm, but it is only a minor set-back in terms of the viability of this multimillion-dollar lawsuit. Class action status is not foreclosed by Judge MacMahon’s order. Nor is Brick foreclosed from representing the class. In practical effect, the order appealed from has done nothing more than require a change of counsel.3 While that may raise other final order issues it certainly does not sound the death knell for this lawsuit.4
*188The more difficult final order issue presented here is whether this order is, in effect, an order disqualifying counsel which would bring the case within the rule of Silver Chrysler Plymouth, Inc. v. Chrysler Motors Corp., 496 F.2d 800 (2d Cir. 1974) (en banc), which holds that orders granting or denying attorney disqualification are appealable under the doctrine of Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 69 S.Ct. 1221, 93 L.Ed. 1528 (1949).5 In my view, it is not such an order. Intrater has not been disqualified from representing his client, Brick, he has not been disqualified from litigating Brick’s action against CPC, and he has not been disqualified from representing Brick personally as a member of the class, so long as the class is represented by someone else. Judge MacMahon’s order jeopardizes none of Brick’s rights, and it does not preclude participation by Intrater. It merely requires that someone other than Brick’s law partner represent the class.
It is true that Judge MacMahon’s order denying class certification will force Brick to make some difficult choices. If he wishes to continue his class action, he must first find another lawyer to represent the class,6 and if he wants to continue to be represented by Intrater and to give him complete control of the litigation, then he will have to proceed in his individual capacity. However, the very existence of those choices militates against a holding that the order appealed from is final.
I would dismiss the appeal.

. That concession is, of course, wholly ineffective to confer jurisdiction upon this Court. For the purposes of this opinion, however, I shall treat CPC’s argument as if it had been made by Brick.

. E. Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940); J. Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions XVII.

. 1 do not wish to suggest that if Brick merely changes lawyers he will thereby become entitled to class certification. It may be that by starting this litigation with his law partner as his attorney he has created an appearance of impropriety that can never be reduced to acceptable levels. See generally General Motors Corp. v. City of New York, 501 F.2d 639 (2d Cir. 1974). I express no view on either the merits or the appealability of an order denying class certification on that basis, for no such order is presently before the Court.

. As the majority notes, ante, at 187 n.4, there is at least one other purported class action pending in the Southern District. The pendency of that action bears ample witness to the fact that this lawsuit is viable.

. Because the parties agree that the “death knell” doctrine is applicable here, they have not mentioned the Cohen doctrine as a possible basis for a finding of appealability.

. See note 3, supra.