Civil Procedure – Appeal — nonfinal orders

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U.S. Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Civil

Civil Procedure – Appeal — nonfinal orders

A district court’s denial of summary judgment to a church on an employment discrimination claim is not appealable.

“The district court has not ordered a religious question submitted to the jury for decision. To the contrary, the judge promised to instruct the jury not to weigh or evaluate the Church’s doctrine regarding in vitro fertilization.1 The judge would do well to be quite explicit in these instructions. The pattern jury instructions can be adapted to the particular facts of a given case, and in light of the sensitive context here, this case is an appropriate one for customized instructions.”

“We express no opinion on the merits of the district court’s summary-judgment decision. We hold only that the Diocese has not made a persuasive case for expanding the scope of the collateral-order doctrine to cover the interlocutory decision rendered here. We do not question the importance of the interests the Diocese has asserted. But those interests will not be irreparably harmed by enforcement of the final-judgment rule. See McCarthy, 714 F.3d at 975 (explaining that ‘to be appealable as a collateral order the order must (unless reversed) wreak irreparable harm on the appellant’). Because the district court’s decision is not effectively unreviewable on an appeal from a final judgment, the collateral-order doctrine does not apply. We grant Herx’s motion and DISMISS the appeal for lack of jurisdiction.”

Motion Granted.

14-3057 Herx v. Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Inc.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, Miller, J., Sykes, J.

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