Los Angeles News Service v. Reuters Television International, Ltd.

MEMORANDUM **

Los Angeles News Service (LANS) appeals from the district court’s order granting the defendants’ motion for summary adjudication of LANS’s claim for actual damages. The facts and prior proceedings are known to the parties; they are not cited herein, except as necessary.

We have jurisdiction over this appeal only if the order from which LANS appeals was a “final decision.” 28 U.S.C. § 1291 (1994). Appellate jurisdiction exists if and only if the order was final, notwithstanding LANS’s failure to obtain the separate judgment required by Rule 58 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Bank *242 ers Trust Co. v. Mallis, 435 U.S. 381, 384 , 98 S.Ct. 1117 , 55 L.Ed.2d 357 (1978) (per curiam).

Although the district court’s order indicated that the amount of statutory damages had been calculated, it also required that LANS elect to recover statutory damages before “the district court’s previous award of $60,000 [would] be reinstated.” We therefore cannot say that this situation fits within the “well-developed and longstanding meaning” of the term “final decision,” which holds a decision to be final only if it “ ‘ends the litigation on the merits and leaves nothing for…