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279 F.2d 211

Docket No. 12873.

Smith v. Benedict

Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals

Decided June 16, 1960.

Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals · decided 1960-06-16

2 counsel of record

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“Judgment Upon Multiple Claims or Involving Multiple Parties "When more than one claim for relief is presented in an action, whether as a claim, counterclaim, cross-claim, or third-party claim, or when multiple parties are involved, the court may direct the entry of a final judgment as to one or more but fewer than all the claims or parties only upon an express determination that there is no just reason for delay and upon an express direction for the entry of judgment. In the absence of such determination and direction, any order or other form of decision, however designated, which adjudicates fewer than all the claims or the rights and liabilities of fewer than all the parties shall not terminate the action as to any of the claims or parties, and the order or other form of decision is subject to revision at any time before the entry of judgment adjudicating all the claims and the rights and liabilities of all the parties.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Paul E. Repass v. Albert L. Vreeland and Leonard G. Brown, Individuals, and Vreeland & Brown, a New Jersey Partnership in the Practice of Law

“[a]n order merely striking one of several defenses, leaving others on the record, and granting leave to amend, is not a 'final' decision within the meaning of 28 U.S.C.A. § 1291”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Exxon Corporation v. Oxxford Clothes Inc Xx

Relies on Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp. · Catlin v. United States · Swift & Co. Packers v. Compania Colombiana Del Caribe, S. A.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Opinion by Kenneth Philip Grubb · Decided 1960-06-16

How this case has been cited

Cited by 32 later decisions — most recently February 2016 · most notably Swanson ex rel. Peoria Service Co. v. American Consumer Industries, Inc. (1975), United States v. Mehrmanesh (1980)

20 federal appellate · 1 district · 3 state decisions

100196019701980199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1*212Robert B. Johnstone, Leslie H. Vogel, Robert C. Vogel, Chicago, 111., for defendant-appellant.

¶2Louis S. Griggins, William H. De-Parcq, Chicago, 111., for appellee.

¶3Before SCHNACKENBERG and CASTLE, Circuit Judges, and GRUBB, District Judge.

¶4GRUBB, District Judge.

¶5Action for personal injuries. One of the defenses interposed was the Statute of Limitations. This is an appeal from a “judgment” for plaintiff entered on a trial of the separate defense of the Statute of Limitations.

¶6 The judgment denying the defense does not adjudicate or terminate the claim on the merits. It is, therefore, not a final decision from which an appeal may be taken under Section 1291, Title 28 U.S.C.Á., Final decisions of district courts. Asher v. Ruppa, 7 Cir., 1949, 173 F.2d 10, and Catlin v. United States, 1945, 324 U.S. 229, 65 S.Ct. 631, 89 L.Ed. 911.

¶7The judgment appealed from does not fall within the small class of cases which form an exception to the final decision rule. In these cases review is granted where the decision, although not terminating the litigation, has a final and probably irreparable effect on a right of the parties which might be lost if review were deferred until the whole case is adjudicated. Thus, an order denying a motion that plaintiff give security in connection with the action was held appealable in Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp., 1949, 337 U.S. 541, 69 S.Ct. 1221, 93 L.Ed. 1528, where a serious and unsettled question was presented as to the right to security. In Swift & Co. Packers v. Compania Colombiana Del Caribe, S.A., 1950, 339 U.S. 684, 70 S.Ct. 861, 94 L.Ed. 1206, an order vacating attachment of a vessel was held appeal-able because a later review, after release of the vessel, would be an empty right, and restoration would only theoretically be possible. An order denying defendant’s motion for reduction of bail was held appealable because the order was deemed to have a final and irreparable effect on the right of the defendant, was of sufficient importance, and the claimed right was not an ingredient of the cause of action in Heikkinen v. United States, 7 Cir., 1953, 208 F.2d 738.

¶8Although designated a judgment on a separate defense, the decision has the same effect as a denial of a motion to dismiss. Orders denying motions to dismiss have been held nonappealable. Spruill v. Cage, 6 Cir., 1958, 262 F.2d *213355; Connell v. Dulien Steel Products, Inc., 5 Cir., 1957, 240 F.2d 414.

¶9 The judgment on the defense does not fall within Rule 54(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S. C.A., providing for entry of final judgment upon one or more but less than all of the claims upon the express determination that there is no just reason for delay. The term “claim,” as used in the Rule, upon which an appealable judgment may be entered has been defined as a cause of action. School Dist. No. 5 v. Lundgren, 9 Cir., 1958, 259 F.2d 101.

¶10The appeal does not purport to fall within the Interlocutory Appeals Act, Section 1292, Title 28 U.S.C.A., nor has there been compliance with the requirements of that section.

¶11Since the judgment denying the defense of the Statute of Limitations is not a final decision within the meaning of the statute,the court is without jurisdiction in this matter, and the appeal must, therefore, be dismissed. It is so ordered.

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