In Gelboim v. Bank of America,1 decided on Jan. 21, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a district court order dismissing the sole claim in a single-claim action that has been consolidated with other multiple-claim actions in multidistrict litigation (MDL) is immediately appealable as a “final” order, even if claims remain unresolved in other consolidated actions in the MDL.
Gelboim involved three provisions: 28 U.S.C. §§1291 and 1407, and Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 54(b). By way of background, in most instances only a “final decision” of the district court—”one which ends the litigation on the merits and leaves nothing for the court to do but execute the judgment”2—is appealable to the U.S. Court of Appeals as a matter of right (28 USC §1292[a]). This is known as the “finality” requirement for federal appellate jurisdiction.
