C.E. Pope Equity Trust v. United States of America, Richard L. Stradley, Trustee, Etc. v. United States of America

The C.E. Pope Equity Trust brought a complaint whose signature was as follows:

The J.A. Shadwick Business Trust brought a complaint whose signature read as follows:

The district court dismissed the complaint in C.E. Pope without prejudice and granted the defendants’ motion to strike the complaint in Shadwick. The issue in both cases is the same and they have been consolidated for argument and decision here. We affirm the district court.

ANALYSIS

The decisions of the district court were interlocutory but appealable, falling within the exception for collateral orders which conclusively determine the disputed question; resolve an important issue completely separate from the merits of the action; and are effectively unreviewable on appeal. Cohen v. Beneficial Indus. Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541 , 69 S.Ct. 1221 , 93 L.Ed. 1528 (1949); see Kuster v. Block, 773 F.2d 1048 (9th Cir.1985).

The Judiciary Act of 1789, § 35, 1 Stat. 73 , 92 (1789) provided that “in all the courts of the United States, the parties may plead and manage their own causes personally ...” This same language is now found in 28 U.S.C. § 1654 which reads:

The specific question raised by the claim to the right of…