United States Rubber Company v. Francis Wright

By order dated July 26, 1965, this court granted an interlocutory appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1292 (b) from an order of the district court denying appellant’s motion for summary judgment and from the district court’s subsequent narrative order denying reconsideration of its prior order. In the latter order the district court noted that its ruling “involved a controlling question of law as to which there is substantial ground for difference of opinion and that an immediate appeal from said orders may materially advance the ultimate termination of this litigation.” After receiving briefs and hearing oral argument we are of the opinion that the order granting the interlocutory appeal was improvidently granted and should be vacated.

The legislative history of subsection (b) of section 1292, which was added to the Judiciary and Judicial Procedure Title in 1958, indicates that it was to be used only in extraordinary cases where decision of an interlocutory appeal might avoid protracted and expensive litigation. It was not intended merely to provide review of difficult rulings in hard cases. This unexceptional contract litigation presents, at most, nothing more than an uncertain question…