Behind a knotty set of questions relating to the coordination of parallel suits in state and federal court lies an unfortunate incident on the streets of Chicago, during which a group of Mexiean-Americans were savagely beaten with metal flashlights, fists, and feet by some Chicago police officers. They were arrested and, after further abuse, released; ultimately all criminal charges against them were dismissed. The victims (to whom we refer collectively as Montaño, after the lead plaintiff Esteban Montaño) sued the City and the officers in federal court on both federal and state law theories.
Rather than deciding the whole case, the district court chose to keep the federal-law claims and to sever the supplemental state claims and dismiss them without prejudice. Faced with this turn of events, Montaño re-filed the state claims in state court. The district court then resolved all but two *595 of the federal claims in favor of the City-defendants. At that point, matters took a highly unusual turn. Acting on its own initiative, the court first stayed the remaining federal claims pending the resolution of the parallel state-court action, and then it converted the stay into a dismissal without prejudice pending resolution of the state-court action.
Believing that it has effectively lost its right to have a federal forum resolve (at a minimum) the federal claims, the City has appealed from the dismissal of the remaining federal claims. It wants us to undo the-mess and reinstate the action in the federal court. Montaño responds that the City is too late — it should in his opinion have filed immediate appeals from the earlier (interlocutory) orders. As we asked at oral argument, can we put this Humpty Dumpty-like case back together again? We think there is a way, and so we reverse and remand for further proceedings.
I
On September 14, 1997, festivities commemorating Mexican Independence Day (which actually falls on September 16) were taking place in the Little Village section of Chicago. Esteban Montaño and several of his friends — including Ricardo Ruiz, Julio Perales, and Yesenia and David Mendez — were among the celebrants when they were set upon by several officers of the City of Chicago Police Department. The incident began when Officers Atilano and LaFrancis, who claimed to be responding to the throwing of a beer bottle at their squad car, confronted Montaño, Ruiz, and Perales at a street corner. During the ensuing pat-down for weapons, Officer Atilano allegedly punched Montaño in the groin, and a scuffle ensued. Officers Toolis and Kusar arrived on the scene to provide backup, and a significant amount of force was applied to Montaño, including blows to his head and back with metal flashlights, as well as choking and kicking.
When Ruiz and Perales protested Mon-taño’s treatment, officers arrested them, too, twice knocking Ruiz to the ground. By now a group of Montaño’s friends had assembled, as well as additional police back-up, including Officers Hopkins, Skol, Maresso, Tamez, and Zeleswki. When David Mendez attempted to leave the scene, he warned the officers, “I’ll see you on Channel 5 News.” An officer arrested him, tackling him and repeatedly kicking him in the ribs and stepping on his face in the process. Officer Zeleswki arrested Yesenia Mendez as well when she asked why her husband (David) and brother (Montaño) had been arrested.
The arrestees were transported to the Tenth District police station. Montaño suffered more beatings at the station, and all of the plaintiffs were subjected to a variety of racial epithets and other verbal abuse. Montaño, Perales, and Ruiz were strip-searched. Yesenia Mendez was later transferred to the Eleventh District station, where she, too, was strip-searched. All told, Montaño and his friends were held for some four hours. Although Mon-taño, Perales, and Ruiz needed medical treatment as a result of their confrontation with police, none was provided. All the plaintiffs were charged with various combinations of disorderly conduct, drinking on a public way, and resisting arrest, and then released. Some time later, all charges were dropped.
Two months later, on November 19, 1997, Montaño filed a nine-count complaint against the City of Chicago and sixteen individual defendants. Five of the counts advanced federal-law claims under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985 (excessive force, false arrest, malicious prosecution, failure to intervene, and conspiracy), and four raised state-law claims (battery, false ar
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rest, malicious prosecution, and intentional infliction of emotional distress). Eight out of the nine counts raised claims against the individual officers. The remaining count was a federal claim against the City based on
Monell v. Department of Social Services,
The federal-law claims proceeded to trial in the district court. On November 15, 2001, at the conclusion of the presentation of Montaño’s case-in-chief, the district court granted judgment as a matter of law in favor of the officers on all but two of the remaining counts. At this point, only Montaño’s individual claim against Officer Lopez for excessive force and Yesenia Mendez’s claim against Officer Lambert, alleging an illegal strip search remained to be decided. The district court declared a mistrial on those two counts. The court also noted its displeasure with the plaintiffs and threatened sanctions, stating its belief that the plaintiffs were inspired to bring their suit by the Rodney King incident, rather than a desire to obtain compensation for their injuries.
On November 27, 2001, before the two remaining claims could be retried, the court denied the City’s Rule 59 motion to reconsider its September 25 dismissal of the state-law claims. The district court, once again acting on its own, then entered an order staying the federal litigation pending the resolution of the state-court action. This order was not accompanied by a memorandum and did not otherwise state the grounds on which the stay was to be entered or the form of abstention that the court was invoking.
Montaño filed an interlocutory appeal on December 18, 2001, challenging the district court’s grant of summary judgment to various of the defendants in the September 25 order. The appeal also sought a writ of mandamus to overturn various discovery orders. The City filed a cross-appeal on January 2, 2002, seeking review of the September 25 order refusing to retain supplemental jurisdiction over the state-law claims, and also that portion of the November 27 order that stayed the federal action pending resolution of the state-court proceedings. A motions panel of this court disposed of the appeal by order, finding that Montaño had given insufficient notice of his intent to appeal that part of the November 27 order staying the federal action, and that his appeal of the entry of summary judgment in favor of some of defendants was otherwise premature.
Montano v. City of Chicago,
Nos. 01-4284 & 02-1034, slip op. at 2 (7th Cir. Mar. 20, 2002). Finding Montaño’s appeal improper, we also declined jurisdiction over the City’s cross-appeal, determining it was time-barred under
Abbs v. Sullivan,
On March 19, 2002, the district court entered a further order, again without any warning to the parties or explanation, dismissing the federal case without prejudice pending the outcome of the state-court proceedings. Two weeks later (within ten business days), on March 29, 2002, the City filed a motion to vacate three separate orders: the September 25 order declining to retain supplemental jurisdiction *597 over the state-law counts, the November 27 order staying the federal litigation, and the March 19 order dismissing the federal-law counts without prejudice. The district court denied this motion by order dated September 30, 2002. The City now appeals.
II
Our first order of business concerns appellate jurisdiction. The City asks us to vacate the three different orders of the district court just identified. Montaño responds that we lack jurisdiction to review either of the earlier two orders because of the City’s failure to file timely appeals as to each. With respect to the September 25 order, Montaño notes that the City filed a motion for reconsideration on October 1, 2001. That motion was denied on October 24, 2001. On November 2, 2001, the City filed a second motion for reconsideration, which the district court denied at the outset of trial, on November 7, 2001. In Montaño’s view, November 7 is the critical date for a challenge of the September 25 order; the City had 30 days from that point to file a notice of appeal, but it failed to do so. This, Montaño contends, constitutes waiver and divests this court of appellate jurisdiction to review the September 25 order.
Montaño’s position reflects a fundámental misunderstanding of the nature of interlocutory appeals, as any effort to appeal the September. 25 order surely would have been. The failure to take an interlocutory appeal does not necessarily preclude a later appeal: a party can always bring those claims as part of an appeal of a final judgment.
Jays Foods, L.L.C. v. Chem. & Allied Prod. Workers Union, Local 20,
Although this record is not as clear as we would have wished, because of the district court’s apparent expectation that the parties might return to federal court after the state court proceedings are concluded, it nevertheless might support a finding that the March 19 order was indeed a
de facto
final judgment. As we have mentioned, the March 19 order dismisses the remaining two federal claims “without prejudice.” In the usual case, an order dismissing a complaint without prejudice is not final, and is therefore not appealable under , 28 U.S.C. § 1291, because the plaintiff is free to amend her pleading and continue the litigation. See,
e.g., Hoskins v. Poelstra,
The possibility of additional proceedings in federal court is real enough, however (in large part because the district court so explicitly anticipated them); that we think it prudent to decide in the alter *598 native whether appellate jurisdiction exists if the March 19 order is better viewed as non-final. The answer, we are confident, is yes, because in substance the March 19 order represents a decision by the federal court to abstain, and it otherwise fits the description of “collateral orders,” as we explain below. Either way — as an abstention order or as a collateral order — immediate appellate review of the March 19 order itself is available, for the reasons we now explain.
Putting labels to one side, the March 19 order is best understood as an order of abstention, implemented through dismissal rather than a stay. As such, it is independently appealable under the rule announced in
Quackenbush v. Allstate Insurance Co.,
The collateral order doctrine permits an appeal from a non-final judgment where the issues raised are “ ‘too important to be denied review and too independent of the cause itself to require that appellate consideration be deferred until the whole case is adjudicated.’ ”
United States v. Thompson,
The district court’s March 19 dismissal meets these criteria. It is in no sense tentative: the district court entered a one-sentence order that dismissed without prejudice the federal-law claims pending resolution of the state court proceedings. Compare
Microsoftware Computer Sys., Inc. v. Ontel Corp.,
The other requirements of the collateral order doctrine are met as well. The district court’s March 19 order resolves issues that are capable of review without exten
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sive examination of the underlying merits of the case. Indeed, a dismissal without prejudice during the pendency of parallel state-court proceedings explicitly defers all merits consideration in the federal-court proceeding. Further, because judgment in the parallel state-court proceeding may have preclusive effect as to the federal-law claims, see
Allen v. McCurry,
With jurisdiction over the appeal from the March 19 order secure, the only remaining question is whether we may also review the earlier two orders the City is trying to appeal. We can, if the doctrine of pendent appellate jurisdiction would support review of either or both of those orders. That doctrine allows a court of appeals “to review an otherwise unappealable interlocutory order if it is inextricably intertwined with an appealable one.”
Jones v. InfoCure, Corp.,
With respect to the September 25 order, we conclude that pendent appellate jurisdiction does exist and should be exercised here. Montano claims only that the district court’s September 25 order declining to exercise supplemental jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1367(c) was immediately appealable, but he cites no authority for that proposition and it is not dispositive in any event. It is true that we have found in the past that remands of removed cases that dispose of all remaining claims and that rest on the authority of'28 U.S.C. § 1367(c), rather than 28 U.S.C. § 1447(c), are appealable final judgments. See,
e.g., Miller Aviation v. Milwaukee County Bd. of Supervisors,
Additionally, we must evaluate the relation between the unappealable order(s) and the appealable order — how “entwined” are they? This requires more than a close link between the two: “it must be practically indispensable that we address the merits of the unappealable order in order to resolve the properly-taken appeal.”
Valders Stone & Marble,
We are satisfied, based on that review, that the September 25 and March 19 orders are sufficiently woven together to justify invocation of pendent appellate jurisdiction. This is so even though the earlier dismissal of the state-law claims was not a perfect but-for cause of the court’s later decision to dismiss without prejudice the federal-law claims. A district court may abstain under
Colorado River Water Conservation District v. United States,
Montaño also urges us to reject the City’s effort to challenge the November 27 order in this appeal. Once again, he rests primarily on the argument that the City filed an untimely notice of appeal of the November 27 order and so has waived its right to appeal that order. As we noted earlier, the November 27 order awarded summary judgment to some of the defendants and stayed the federal proceedings pending the resolution of matters in the parallel state-court action. Montaño attempted to appeal the adverse summary
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judgment rulings, and the City cross-appealed challenging the stay order. We dismissed the appeal for want of jurisdiction on March 20, 2002, concluding that
Montaño
had not designated the part of the district court’s order staying the feder-ál action in his notice of appeal, as required by fed. R. App. P. 3(c), and that his efforts to obtain review of the district court’s entry of summary judgment were “otherwise premature.”
Montano,
Nos. 01-4284 & 02-1034, slip op. at 2. The City’s cross-appeal of the stay order was dismissed as untimely under the principle that a finding that an appellant’s notice of appeal is invalid . will also render invalid a cross-appeal that was not filed within the 30-day period specified by fed. R. App. P. 4(a)(1)(A). See
Abbs,
Montaño' now argues that, based on' a strict reading of Abbs and the fact that this court has already once declared that the City’s attempt to challenge the November 27 stay was time-barred, the City has waived its right to appeal that order. The current problem with appellate jurisdiction, however, has nothing to do with either the law of the case or the timing of the City’s appeal this time around. It is instead the fact that the district court’s March 19 order mooted the November 27 order by converting the stay into a dismissal without prejudice. The stay entered in the November 27 order now has no continuing force in this case. We therefore will not offer any opinion about the November 27 order, except insofar as it is relevant to the March 19 order that is properly before us.
Ill
We turn at last to the merits. We take up first the district court’s September 25 order declining to exercise its supplemental jurisdiction over the state-law claims. We review the district court’s refusal to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the state-law claims for an abuse of discretion..
Groce v. Eli Lilly Co.,
The rules for a district court’s exercise of supplemental jurisdiction are set forth at 28 U.S.C. § 1367(a):
[I]n any civil action of which the district courts have original jurisdiction, the district courts shall have supplemental jurisdiction over all other claims that are so related to claims in the action within such original jurisdiction that they form part of the same case or controversy under Article III of the United States Constitution.
Section 1367(c) sets forth the circumstances under which a district court may decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction:
The district courts may decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over a claim under subsection (a) .if—
(1) the. claim raises a novel or complex, issue of State law,
(2) the claim substantially predominates over the claim or claims over which the district court has original jurisdiction,
(3) the district court has dismissed all claims over which it has original jurisdiction, or
(4) in exceptional circumstances, there are other compelling reasons for declining jurisdiction.
The first problem — practically a fatal one for abuse-of-discretion review — is that we have no idea why the district court decided to dismiss these claims, because it offered no explanation. Nothing on1 this record suggests that it was for one of the four reasons recognized in § 1367(c). None of the garden-variety tort claims Montaño and his friends asserted raises novel or complex issues of state law. Nor
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do the state-law claims predominate over the federal-law claims. Prior to the November 27 and March 19 orders staying and then dismissing without prejudice the federal-law claims, the district court had not dismissed all claims over which it had original federal question jurisdiction. Finally, Montaño cannot point to any compelling rationale that might salvage the total absence of the other three factors. That analysis usually involves consideration of “ ‘the values of judicial economy, convenience, fairness, and comity,”’ see
City of Chicago v. Int’l Coll., of Surgeons,
The March 19 dismissal without prejudice is just as flawed. The parties appear to agree that the district court’s outright dismissal of the federal claims was an abuse of discretion, and we join them in that assessment. While the Supreme Court has expressly reserved the question,
Arizona v. San Carlos Apache Tribe of Ariz.,
IV
We Vacate the September 25 order insofar as it dismissed the supplemental state-law claims and Remand to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. Circuit Rule 36 shall apply on remand.