UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 02-6082

MICHAEL RANKINS, Plaintiff - Appellant, versus

GREGORY BONNER, Chief of Police, Defendant - Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern Dis- trict of North Carolina, at Raleigh. Malcolm J. Howard, District Judge. (CA-00-927-5-H)

Submitted: March 14, 2002 Decided: March 26, 2002

Before NIEMEYER and KING, Circuit Judges, and HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Michael Rankins, Appellant Pro Se. Louis Phillip Hornthal, III, HORNTHAL, RILEY, ELLIS & MALAND, Elizabeth City, North Carolina, for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

See Local Rule 36(c).

PER CURIAM: Michael Rankins appeals the district court’s order denying multiple discovery and other pre-trial motions in his 42 U.S.C.A.

§ 1983 (West Supp. 2001) action. We dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction because the order is not appealable. This court may exercise jurisdiction only over final orders, 28 U.S.C. § 1291 (1994), and certain interlocutory and collateral orders, 28 U.S.C. § 1292 (1994); Fed. R. Civ. P. 54(b); Cohen v. Beneficial Indus.

Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541 (1949). The order here appealed is neither a final order nor an appealable interlocutory or collateral order.

We dismiss the appeal as interlocutory. We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials before the court and argument would not aid the decisional process.

DISMISSED