On January 21, 2015, the Supreme Court decided a narrow but important issue of appellate jurisdiction in cases that have been consolidated for pretrial proceedings by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. A unanimous Court ruled that when a district court in the consolidated action dismisses one plaintiff’s claim in its entirety, that plaintiff may immediately take a direct appeal from the order dismissing the complaint, even if other cases remain pending in the consolidated action. This decision written by Justice Ginsburg reversed a ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which ruled previously that no appeal was permitted until all of the claims in the consolidated action were resolved. This decision has the potential to result in more appellate litigation arising out of multidistrict litigation and to some extent reduces the efficiencies that multidistrict litigation (MDL) is meant to create.

The case arises out of an MDL for all cases involving allegations that banks named as defendants understated their borrowing costs, thereby deflating LIBOR and allowing the banks to pay lower interest rates on financial instruments sold to investors. The LIBOR MDL is composed of 60 actions commenced in federal courts throughout the country and consolidated in the Southern District of New York. The MDL included a myriad of different LIBOR-related claims, including some antitrust claims.