The Oyez Project: Judicial Power Issues - Review of Non-Final Order Arguments

Budinich v. Becton Dickinson & Co. - Oral Argument

Mon, 21 Mar 1988 12:00:00 -0500

No details yet.

Carson v. American Brands, Inc. - Oral Argument

Wed, 10 Dec 1980 12:00:00 -0500

No details yet.

Connecticut National Bank v. Germain, Trustee For The Estate Of O'sullivan's Fuel Oil Co., Inc. - Oral Argument

Tue, 21 Jan 1992 12:00:00 -0500

No details yet.

Coopers & Lybrand v. Livesay - Oral Argument

Wed, 22 Mar 1978 12:00:00 -0500

No details yet.

Cunningham v. Hamilton County OH - Oral Argument

Mon, 19 Apr 1999 12:00:00 -0500

Teresa L. Cunningham, an attorney representing a plaintiff, was served with a request for interrogatories and documents with responses due within 30 days after service. Cunningham failed to comply with those discovery orders, and a Magistrate Judge granted Hamilton County's motion for sanctions against her under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(a)(4). The District Court affirmed the Magistrate Judge's order for sanctions. The court also disqualified Cunningham as counsel. Although the District Court proceedings were ongoing, Cunningham immediately appealed the order affirming the sanctions award. The Court of Appeals dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction because federal appellate court jurisdiction is ordinarily limited to appeals from "final decisions of the district courts." The court also held that the sanctions order was not immediately appealable under the collateral order doctrine, which provides that certain orders may be appealed, notwithstanding the absence of final judgment, because Cunningham's appeal was not completely separate from the merits of the case.

Digital Equipment Corp. v. Desktop Direct Inc. - Oral Argument

Tue, 22 Feb 1994 12:00:00 -0500

After Digital Equipment Corporation and Desktop Direct, Inc. arrived at a settlement agreement in a trademark infringement suit, the federal District Court dismissed the case. Several months later, after Desktop claimed that Digital had misrepresented important facts during the settlement negotiations, the Court reopened the case and cancelled the agreement. Digital appealed, but the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to hear the case, holding that it was not immediately appealable under the guidelines laid out by the Supreme Court in Coopers & Lybrand v. Livesay, 437 U.S. 463. The court held that the "right not to go to trial" claimed by Digital under the settlement was not sufficiently important to merit an immediate appeal and was different from immunity rooted in an explicit statutory or constitutional provision or compelling public policy rationale, the denial of which had been held immediately appealable.

Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. v. Risjord - Oral Argument

Wed, 12 Nov 1980 12:00:00 -0500

No details yet.

Firstier Mtge. Co. v. Investors Mtge. Ins. Co. - Oral Argument

Wed, 10 Oct 1990 12:00:00 -0500

No details yet.

Flanagan v. United States - Oral Argument

Wed, 30 Nov 1983 12:00:00 -0500

No details yet.

Florida v. Thomas - Oral Argument

Wed, 25 Apr 2001 12:00:00 -0500

While officers were investigating marijuana sales at Florida home, Robert Thomas drove up to the house. An officer asked Thomas for his name and driver license. Thomas was arrested when a search on his license revealed an outstanding warrant. After taking Thomas inside the house, the officer searched Thomas' car and found methamphetamine. Subsequently, the trial court granted Thomas' motion to suppress. In reversing, the appellate found the search valid under New York v. Belton. In New York v. Belton, the U.S. Supreme Court established a "bright-line" rule permitting an officer who has made a lawful custodial arrest of a car's occupant to search the car's passenger compartment as a contemporaneous incident of the arrest. In reversing, the Florida Supreme Court held Belton did not apply because it is limited to situations where the officer initiates contact with a vehicle's occupant while that person remains in the vehicle.

Forney v. Apfel, Commissioner of Social Security - Oral Argument

Wed, 22 Apr 1998 12:00:00 -0500

Sandra K. Forney applied for Social Security disability benefits. A Social Security Judge determined Forney was minimally disabled, but that she was not disabled enough to qualify for benefits. Consequently she was denied her disability claim. The Social Security Administration's Appeals Council denied Forney's request for review. Forney then sought judicial review in federal District Court. The District Court found that the final determination was inadequately supported by the evidence and remanded the case to the agency for further proceedings. Forney appealed the remand order to the Court of Appeals. She contended that the agency's denial of benefits should be reversed outright. The Court of Appeals did not hear her claim, however, for it decided that Forney did not have the legal right to appeal.

Gardner v. Westinghouse Broadcasting Co. - Oral Argument

Wed, 22 Mar 1978 12:00:00 -0500

No details yet.

Gillette Co. v. Miner - Oral Argument

Wed, 10 Nov 1982 12:00:00 -0500

No details yet.

Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. v. Mayacamas Corp. - Oral Argument

Mon, 07 Dec 1987 12:00:00 -0500

No details yet.

Jefferson, Individually And As Administrator Of The Estate Of Jefferson, Deceased v. City Of Tarrant, Alabama - Oral Argument

Tue, 04 Nov 1997 12:00:00 -0500

Alberta Jefferson, an African American woman, died as a result of a fire in her home in the city of Tarrant, Alabama. Her survivors filed multiple complaints against Tarrant City: two under state law and two under federal law. The state law complaints alleged wrongful death and the common-law tort of outrage, while the two federal claims brought under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 alleged that Ms. Jefferson's death was the direct result of indifference and racial discrimination in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. The City claimed that the complaints were governed by Alabama's Wrongful Death Act, which the Alabama Supreme Court had interpreted to provide only for punitive damages. The City then argued that it could not be sued under Section 1983 because the Supreme Court had ruled that Section 1983 plaintiffs are not entitled to sue a municipality for punitive damages.

The state court ruled in favor of Jefferson, but the Alabama Supreme Court reversed and sent the case back to the state court after determining that the state Act did in fact govern the claims. The Supreme Court agreed to consider the federal complaints. The City contended that the Court lacked jurisdiction over the Alabama Supreme Court's order because the case was not yet final.

Johnson v. California - Oral Argument

Tue, 30 Mar 2004 12:00:00 -0500

Jay Shawn Johnson, on trial in California for murder, objected to the district attorney's use of peremptory challenges to eliminate all three black prospective jurors. Johnson argued the eliminations were based on race. The judge denied Johnson's motions and held that Johnson had failed to show a "strong likelihood" that the dismissals were race-based. The judge relied on People v. Wheeler, the 1978 case in which the California Supreme Court ruled that to establish a prima facie case of racial bias in peremptory challenges, the objector had to show "strong likelihood" that the challenges were race-based. The jury found Johnson guilty of second-degree murder.

Johnson appealed and argued that the "strong likelihood" standard in Wheeler was at odds with the 'reasonable inference" standard the U.S. Supreme Court set in Batson v. Kentucky (1986). The appeals court agreed and reversed Johnson's conviction. The California Supreme Court reversed and ruled that the two standards were the same.

Johnson v. Jones - Oral Argument

Tue, 18 Apr 1995 12:00:00 -0500

Police officers found Houston Jones, a diabetic, on the street while he was having an insulin seizure. The officers arrested Jones because he appeared drunk. Later, Jones found himself with several broken ribs. Jones brought a constitutional tort action against the officers, claiming that they used excessive force when they arrested him and that they beat him at the police station. As government officials, the officers were entitled to assert a qualified immunity defense. Three of the officers moved for summary judgment arguing that he could point to no evidence that these three had beaten him or had been present during beatings. Holding that there was sufficient circumstantial evidence supporting Jones's theory of the case, the District Court denied the motion. The officers sought an immediate appeal, arguing that the denial was wrong because the evidence in the pretrial record was not sufficient to show a genuine issue of fact for trial. The Court of Appeals held that it lacked appellate jurisdiction and dismissed the appeal.

Kimberlin v. Quinlan 515 U.S. 321 - Oral Argument

Wed, 26 Apr 1995 12:00:00 -0500

No details yet.

Melkonyan v. Sullivan - Oral Argument

Mon, 15 Apr 1991 12:00:00 -0500

No details yet.

Midland Asphalt Corp. v. United States - Oral Argument

Tue, 17 Jan 1989 12:00:00 -0500

No details yet.

Moses H. Cone Hospital v. Mercury Constr. Corp. - Oral Argument

Tue, 02 Nov 1982 12:00:00 -0500

No details yet.

Puerto Rico Aqueduct And Sewer Authority v. Metcalf & Eddy, Inc. - Oral Argument

Mon, 09 Nov 1992 12:00:00 -0500

No details yet.

Richardson-Merrell Inc. v. Koller - Oral Argument

Tue, 26 Feb 1985 12:00:00 -0500

No details yet.

Sullivan v. Finkelstein - Oral Argument

Tue, 24 Apr 1990 12:00:00 -0500

No details yet.

Van Cauwenberghe v. Biard - Oral Argument

Mon, 21 Mar 1988 12:00:00 -0500

No details yet.

Will v. Hallock - Oral Argument

Mon, 28 Nov 2005 12:00:00 -0500

U.S. Customs Service agents investigating a child pornography website raided Susan and Richard Hallock's residence and seized several computers. The Hallocks were cleared of any guilt, but the computers were damaged beyond repair. Susan Hallock originally sued the government under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), which waives the government's sovereign immunity in certain cases. The District Court dismissed that case for lack of jurisdiction, because the FTCA's waiver has an exception for claims arising from the detention of goods by customs. Hallock then sued Will and the other customs agents as individuals. The agents made a motion for dismissal under a provision of the FTCA that bars suits where a judgment on the claim has already been entered. The District Court denied the motion, accepting Hallock's argument that the dismissal for lack of jurisdiction did not constitute a final judgment. Although the trial had not yet concluded, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals granted the agents' appeal of the District Court's ruling on the motion and affirmed the District Court, ruling that since Hallock had not properly brought a claim in the original suit, no judgment had been entered. The Circuit Court ruled that it had jurisdiction to hear the appeal under the collateral order doctrine, under which some decisions of lower courts other than final judgments can be appealed. The Supreme Court granted certiorari on the question of the motion to dismiss, but instructed the parties to argue the question of the Circuit Court's authority to hear the appeal.