Gerald F. Stanley, Jack Leavitt, Federal Public Defender, Intervenor-Appellee v. Jeanne Woodford

This is an interlocutory appeal from a sanctions order compelling attorney Jack Leavitt (“Leavitt”) to pay attorney’s fees under 28 U.S.C. § 1927 and the district court’s inherent powers. The Magistrate Judge sanctioned Leavitt for violating, twice and in bad faith, the Magistrate Judge’s order barring further appearances on behalf of a California prisoner in capital habeas corpus proceedings under .28 U.S.C. § 2254. District Judge Damrell affirmed, and Leavitt immediately appeals. We are called on to decide whether, after the Supreme Court’s unanimous opinion in Cunningham v. Hamilton County, 527 U.S. 198 , 119 S.Ct. 1915 , 144 L.Ed.2d 184 (1999), this court has appellate jurisdiction to entertain a prejudgment appeal of an order imposing sanctions on a non-party attorney, no longer representing any party in the underlying case, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1927 and the court’s inherent powers. We find jurisdiction to be absent and dismiss Leavitt’s appeal.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On January 14, 2002, Leavitt filed papers seeking to disqualify appointed counsel for capital habeas corpus petitioner Gerald F. Stanley (“Stanley”) and to substitute himself as counsel of…