Appellate Insights

Under California’s “one final judgment” rule, an aggrieved party generally can’t file an appeal until the trial court has resolved every claim and cross-claim between that party and the opponent.  An important exception to that rule is the collateral-order doctrine, which permits an early appeal if the order meets three requirements:

• The order must be collateral to the litigation’s subject matter, which means the issue that the court decided must be distinct and severable from the underlying litigation’s subject matter,

• The order must be final as to the collateral matter, which means the issue that the court decided requires no further judicial action, and

• The order must direct the payment of money by the appellant or the performance of an act by or against appellant.  (A few cases disagree, but this is a strong majority rule.)

► The practical message:  The rule is easy to state but sometimes inconsistently applied.  Recognizing when an order qualifies as an appealable pre-final-judgment order can make the difference between preserving your client’s rights or watching them vanish.