BNP Paribas SA, a French Corporation, et al. v. Entesar Osman Kashef, et al.

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(f) provides that a court of appeals “may permit” an immediate appeal from an order granting or denying class-action certification. The district court here certified a sprawling class of up to 23,000 Sudanese refugees and asylees who were injured in any way, anywhere in Sudan, by any government actor or a wide group of private actors, over a 14-year period. When petitioners filed a Rule 23(f) petition challenging that manifestly erroneous certification decision, the court of appeals denied it, suggesting that class certification may not sound the “death knell” for a large bank and thus cannot qualify for immediate review under Rule 23(f). The question presented is: Whether the courts of appeals have discretion under Rule 23(f) to grant interlocutory review solely because a district court’s class-certification order is manifestly erroneous. (I)