Stevens v. Brink’s Home Security, 378 F.3d 944 (2004)

David Stevens and Donald Goines filed a class action in Washington state court against Brink’s Home Security for unpaid wages and overtime pay under state law. Brink’s removed the action to federal court on the basis of diversity of citizenship. Twenty days after the removal, Stevens and Goines filed a motion to amend the complaint to add two new defendants whose presence in the lawsuit would destroy diversity of citizenship. The district court granted the motion to amend and in the same order remanded the case back to state court. Brink’s appealed, but the Ninth Circuit dismissed the appeal on the ground that the order permitting plaintiffs to amend their complaint (assuming it was separable from the remand order, which itself was immune from appellate review) was neither a final order reviewable on appeal nor a collateral order that was subject to review.