Clarkson v. US Air Force

UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 98-2289 ROBERT B. CLARKSON, Plaintiff - Appellant, versus UNITED STATES AIR FORCE, Special Operations Command, Defendant - Appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Anderson. Solomon Blatt, Jr., Senior District Judge. (CA-97-1882-8-08BD) Submitted: February 16, 1999 Decided: March 30, 1999 Before NIEMEYER and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges, and PHILLIPS, Senior Circuit Judge. Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion. Robert B. Clarkson, Appellant Pro Se. Frances Cornelia Trapp, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellee. Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. See Local Rule 36(c). PER CURIAM: Robert B. Clarkson appeals the district court’s orders staying discovery, granting summary judgment to one of two Defendants, and denying Clarkson’s motion for a new trial. This court may exercise jurisdiction only over final orders and certain interlocutory and collateral orders. See 28 U.S.C. § 1291 (1994); 28 U.S.C. § 1292 (1994); Fed. R. Civ. P. 54(b); Cohen v. Beneficial Indus. Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 546 (1949). Because the district court did not direct entry of final judgment under Fed. R. Civ. P. 54(b) and the rulings Clarkson would have us review are not otherwise ap- pealable, we lack jurisdiction to entertain the merits of Clark- son’s challenge to the district court’s orders. Accordingly, we dismiss Clarkson’s appeal as interlocutory. We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal conten- tions are adequately presented in the materials before the court and argument would not aid the decisional process. DISMISSED 2