Premature appeals and setting a case for trial.

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Author: Ellrod, Matt
• Date: 01 April 2010

Thanks to Bretton Albrecht for his excellent article, "Jumping the Gun: Premature Appeals in Civil Cases," (March). At first I thought there were a few typos in the section titled Orders Granting Motions to Dismiss. After rereading it several times, I think he is correct, but his wording can be misread. Once you have passed the threshold issue of whether the order explicitly dismisses something (as opposed to only explicitly "granting" a motion to dismiss, which implies that another order may be coming to accomplish the actual dismissal), the issue is what it is that is being dismissed. At that stage I would put it more simply: If the order dismisses the complaint only and there is permission to amend, it is not appealable. If the order...