Cite as: 516 U. S. 299 (1996)
Breyer, J., dissenting
appeals, where a trial court's interlocutory order is a "collateral order" that satisfies the statutory term "final" for purposes of § 1291. See Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp., 337 U. S. 541, 545-547 (1949). The trial court's inter-locutory order is "collateral" (and "final"), however, only where it meets certain requirements. It must (1) "conclusively determine [a] disputed question," (2) "resolve an important issue completely separate from the merits of the action," and (3) "be effectively unreviewable on appeal from a final judgment." Coopers & Lybrand v. Livesay, 437 U. S. 463, 468 (1978).
These requirements explain why the courts have created the "collateral order" exception. The "effective unreview-ability" requirement means that failure to review the order on appeal now may cause a litigant permanent harm. The "conclusive determination" requirement means that appellate review now is likely needed to avoid that harm. The "separability" requirement means that review now will not likely force an appellate court to consider the same (or quite similar) questions more than once. Johnson v. Jones, 515 U. S. 304, 311 (1995). Taken together, these requirements, as set forth in the Court's cases, see, e. g., ibid.; Midland Asphalt Corp. v. United States, 489 U. S. 794, 799 (1989); Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. v. Mayacamas Corp., 485 U. S. 271, 276 (1988), help pick out a class of orders where the error-correcting benefits of immediate appeal likely outweigh the costs, delays, diminished litigation coherence, and waste of appellate court time potentially associated with multiple appeals. See, e. g., Johnson, supra, at 309-311; R. Posner, Economic Analysis of Law 585-587 (4th ed. 1992).
In Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U. S. 511 (1985), the Court applied this rationale to a District Court order denying a claim of qualified immunity. The Court concluded that the District Court order, by sending the case to trial, could cause the litigant what (in terms of the immunity doctrine's basic trial-avoiding purpose) would amount to an important harm.
315
Page: Index Previous 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007