Stringfellow v. Concerned Neighbors in Action

Summary

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Powell, held that an order granting conditional permissive intervention while denying intervention as of right was not immediately appealable. Because the intervenor could challenge both the denial and the conditions after final judgment, the order neither qualified under the collateral-order doctrine nor amounted to a complete denial of intervention. Section 1292(a)(1) also did not authorize immediate review. The Court vacated the Ninth Circuit's decision and remanded with instructions to dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction. Justice Brennan, joined by Justice Marshall, concurred in the judgment and all but Part II-B, explaining that equal treatment of parties and the availability of mandamus supplied stronger reasons for rejecting the constructive-denial argument than reliance on postjudgment review alone.