40
Opinion of the Court
for the County, and the Court will make a ruling as a matter of law on that issue before the case goes to the jury." Id., at 72a.
Invoking the rule that an order denying qualified immunity is appealable before trial, Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U. S. 511, 530 (1985), the individual defendants immediately appealed. The city of Wadley and the Chambers County Commission also appealed, arguing, first, that the denial of their summary judgment motions—like the denial of the individual defendants' summary judgment motions—was immediately appealable as a collateral order satisfying the test announced in Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp., 337 U. S. 541, 546 (1949) (decisions that are conclusive, that resolve important questions apart from the merits of the underlying action, and that are effectively unreviewable on appeal from final judgment may be appealed immediately). Alternatively, the city and county commission urged the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to exercise "pendent appellate jurisdiction," a power that court had asserted in earlier cases. Stressing the Eleventh Circuit's undisputed jurisdiction over the individual defendants' qualified immunity pleas, the city and county commission maintained that, in the interest of judicial economy, the court should resolve, simultaneously, the city's and commission's appeals.
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part the District Court's order denying summary judgment for the individual defendants. 5 F. 3d 1435, 1448 (1993), modified, 11 F. 3d 1030, 1031-1032 (1994). Next, the Eleventh Circuit held that the District Court's rejections of the county commission's and city's summary judgment motions were not immediately appealable as collateral orders. 5 F. 3d, at 1449, 1452. Nevertheless, the Circuit Court decided to exercise pendent appellate jurisdiction over the county commission's appeal. Id., at 1449-1450. Holding that Sheriff James C.
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