U.S. Sup. Ct.;
13-1174
Three legal prescriptions figure in this case. Title 28 U. S. C. §1291 gives the courts of appeals jurisdiction over appeals from “all final decisions of the district courts of the United States,” and its core application is to rulings that terminate an action. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(b) permits district courts to authorize immediate appeal of dispositive rulings on separate claims in a civil action raising multiple claims. And 28 U. S. C. §1407 authorizes the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) to transfer civil actions “involving one or more common questions of fact … to any district for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings” in order to “promote the just and efficient conduct of such actions,” §1407(a).
