Commercial Litigation and Arbitration

Denial of Summary Judgment Motion Not Appealable after Trial on the Merits

Turner v. Ramo, LLC, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 3568 (11th Cir. Feb. 23, 2012):

On appeal, the Ramo Company argues only that the district court erred in denying its pretrial motion for summary judgment. It is well-settled that we "will not review the pretrial denial of a motion for summary judgment after a full trial and judgment on the merits." Lind v. United Parcel Serv., Inc., 254 F.3d 1281, 1286 (11th Cir. 2001); see also Ortiz v. Jordan, ___ U.S. ___, 131 S. Ct. 884, 889 (2011) (resolving circuit split by concluding that a party may not "appeal an order denying summary judgment after a full trial on the merits").

Footnote 1. We need not address the Ramo Company's argument that a pretrial denial of summary judgment that raises purely legal questions is appealable. The issue the district court resolved at summary judgment-whether there was sufficient evidence from which a factfinder could reasonably infer that the aircraft transferred to the Ramo Company were not encumbered by a bona fide loan-did not present a pure question of law.

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