U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, 1984

The court affirmed dismissal with prejudice because the district court did not abuse its discretion after considering the plaintiffs’ counsel’s repeated delays, failure to answer interrogatories, resulting prejudice, and the apparent strength of the timeliness defense.

The court held that it had appellate jurisdiction to review the district court’s remand order: the order was a final collateral order, and neither the general removal statute nor the bankruptcy remand statute barred review of a remand based on lack of jurisdiction.