Administrative Closure Not Final Disposition Allowing Appeal

Appellate courts sometimes get very technical about the finality requirement for appeals.

In CitiFinancial Corp. v. Harrison, No. 04-60979, 2006 WL 1644828 (5th Cir. June 15, 2006), a financial services consumer brought claims in state court concerning a contract that included an arbitration clause. CitiFinancial removed the case.

While it was pending before one judge, CitiFinancial filed its own lawsuit before another judge seeking an order to compel arbitration and to stay the first case. The court granted that motion and the judge in the original case complied, “administratively closing” the case that was now stayed.

The consumer appealed the order staying the first case and compelling arbitration. The Fifth Circuit concluded that under normal circumstances it has jurisdiction over an appeal from an order compelling arbitration because such an order essentially is final. Here, however, part of the dispute was still ongoing in the original court. The Fifth Circuit ruled that the “administrative closure” did not count as ending the case, because such closures merely stay the case while removing the case from the court’s active docket for statistical purposes, without permanent dismissal.