Filed: Mar. 25, 2016
Latest Update: Mar. 02, 2020
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 15-1706 DANIEL WATSON, as Personal Representative of the Estate of David W Watson, deceased, Plaintiff - Appellant, v. ROBERT A ADAMS, in his individual capacity as a police officer with the Town of Chesterfield; ERIC HEWETT, in his individual capacity as Chief of Police for the Town of Chesterfield; LESLIE DAVIS, in his individual capacity as Lance Corporal with the South Carolina Highway Patrol; SOUTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 15-1706 DANIEL WATSON, as Personal Representative of the Estate of David W Watson, deceased, Plaintiff - Appellant, v. ROBERT A ADAMS, in his individual capacity as a police officer with the Town of Chesterfield; ERIC HEWETT, in his individual capacity as Chief of Police for the Town of Chesterfield; LESLIE DAVIS, in his individual capacity as Lance Corporal with the South Carolina Highway Patrol; SOUTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF P..
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UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 15-1706
DANIEL WATSON, as Personal Representative of the Estate of
David W Watson, deceased,
Plaintiff - Appellant,
v.
ROBERT A ADAMS, in his individual capacity as a police
officer with the Town of Chesterfield; ERIC HEWETT, in his
individual capacity as Chief of Police for the Town of
Chesterfield; LESLIE DAVIS, in his individual capacity as
Lance Corporal with the South Carolina Highway Patrol; SOUTH
CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY; CHESTERFIELD, TOWN OF,
Defendants – Appellees,
and
CHESTERFIELD POLICE DEPARTMENT,
Defendant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
South Carolina, at Florence. Bruce H. Hendricks, District
Judge. (4:12-cv-03436-BHH)
Submitted: March 18, 2016 Decided: March 25, 2016
Before WILKINSON, MOTZ, and THACKER, Circuit Judges.
Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.
Patrick J. McLaughlin, WUKELA LAW FIRM, Florence, South
Carolina, Franklin B. Joyner, Jr., JOYNER LAW FIRM, Cheraw,
South Carolina, for Appellant. Andrew F. Lindemann, DAVIDSON &
LINDEMANN, P.A., Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellees.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
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PER CURIAM:
Daniel Watson (“Watson”), as personal representative of the
estate of David Watson (“David”), filed separate wrongful death
and survival actions against Robert Adams; Eric Hewitt; Leslie
Davis; the South Carolina Department of Public Safety; and the
Town of Chesterfield, South Carolina (collectively,
“Defendants”). Both cases arose from the same core of operative
facts and allegations related to Defendants’ Fourth Amendment
violations and state law torts against David, which Watson
contends prompted David’s suicide. These cases were
consolidated in the district court pursuant to the parties’
consent motion, on the ground that they involved the same
parties and subject matter. In response to Defendants’
identical motions in the two actions, the district court granted
summary judgment only in the wrongful death action.
Watson now seeks to appeal the district court’s order
denying his motion to alter or amend that judgment. Because we
are obliged to inquire sua sponte into matters of our own
appellate jurisdiction, see Feldman v. Law Enf’t Assocs. Corp.,
752 F.3d 339, 346 (4th Cir. 2014), we directed the parties to
provide supplemental briefing addressing whether this appeal is
interlocutory. For the reasons that follow, we dismiss the
appeal.
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We may exercise jurisdiction only over final orders,
28 U.S.C. § 1291 (2012), and certain interlocutory and
collateral orders, 28 U.S.C. § 1292 (2012); Fed. R. Civ. P.
54(b); Cohen v. Beneficial Indus. Loan Corp.,
337 U.S. 541, 545-
47 (1949). “In the ordinary course a final decision is one that
ends the litigation on the merits and leaves nothing for the
court to do but execute the judgment.” Ray Haluch Gravel Co. v.
Cent. Pension Fund, 134 S. Ct. 773, 779 (2014) (internal
quotation marks omitted).
Although the district court has entered judgment in
Watson’s wrongful death action, it has not yet issued a final
order in the survival action with which it is consolidated. In
Eggers v. Clinchfield Coal Co.,
11 F.3d 35 (4th Cir. 1993), we
adopted a case-by-case approach to determining whether a
judgment entered in one of several consolidated cases is final
and appealable, relying on concepts of finality encompassed in
28 U.S.C. § 1291.
Id. at 39. We recognized that the
determination must be made by seeking guidance from several
factors, including “whether a case has been consolidated for all
purposes, such as for discovery and trial, and whether the
decision on one claim may affect the rights of the parties
regarding the other claim.”
Id.
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While Watson argues that the appeal is appropriate for
certification under Fed. R. Civ. P. 54(b) and Braswell
Shipyards, Inc. v. Beazer E., Inc.,
2 F.3d 1331 (4th Cir. 1993),
Watson did not seek, and the district court did not grant,
certification for an interlocutory appeal under Rule 54(b) or 28
U.S.C. § 1292(b). Nevertheless, Eggers acknowledged that
considerations underlying Rule 54(b) certification may be
relevant to the finality inquiry presented here.
See 11 F.3d at
39 n.5.
We have reviewed the parties’ arguments in view of Eggers
and Braswell Shipyards and conclude that the appeal is
interlocutory. Watson’s wrongful death and survival actions
were consolidated in the district court for all purposes. The
issues presented in the parties’ original briefs — both related
to proximate causation and to the underlying Fourth Amendment
issues — are intertwined with those issues still pending before
the district court in the survival action. Additionally, while
a retrial of the survival action ultimately could be required if
the causation issue raised in this appeal was wrongly decided,
we find that judicial economy weighs more strongly in favor of
postponing judicial review.
Accordingly, we dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. We
dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal
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contentions are adequately presented in the materials before
this court and argument would not aid the decisional process.
DISMISSED
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