Odle v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Odle v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Opinion of the Court
This case involves allegations that Wal-Mart systematically discriminated against
Unnamed members of a putative class may intervene after the entry of final judgment to appeal an earlier denial of class certification. United Airlines, Inc. v. McDonald, 432 U.S. 385, 394-96, 97 S.Ct. 2464, 53 L.Ed.2d 423 (1977). A leading treatise states that when — as here — a would-be intervenor files a timely notice of appeal before the district court acts on a post-judgment motion to intervene, “the case may be remanded to the district court to allow the court to hear the motion.” Moore’s Federal Practice, supra, § 303.10[l][b][iv]. We followed that course in a similar case, dismissing an appeal filed by putative intervenors who intended to appeal a class decertification order and remanding so that the district court could consider the motion to intervene. See Nichols v. Mobile Bd. of Realtors, Inc., 675 F.2d 671, 673 (5th Cir. Unit B 1982) (affirming after the district court granted the motion to intervene on remand and the intervenors filed a new notice of appeal); see also Hobson v. Hansen, 44 F.R.D. 18, 21 (D.D.C. 1968) (noting that a sister circuit had remanded motions to intervene for hearing in district court). And the parties agree that it is proper to take the same action here.
Accordingly, this appeal is DISMISSED and the case is REMANDED to the district court to consider the motion to intervene.
Pursuant to 5th Cir. R. 47.5, the court has determined that this opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5th Cir. R. 47.5.4.
. We express no opinion on the merits of the motion to intervene. A district court’s denial of a motion to intervene is, of course, itself an appealable order. Walker v. City of Mesquite, 858 F.2d 1071, 1074 (5th Cir. 1988); see also McDonald, 432 U.S. at 390, 97 S.Ct. 2464 (noting that would-be intervenors had appealed "the denial of intervention as well as the denial of class certification to the Court of Appeals”).
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.