On September 25, 2013, in a case of first impression, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in In re Refrigerant Compressors Antitrust Litigation issued an order holding that the district court's order dismissing all of the claims raised by some parties in the consolidated amended complaint filed after a multidistrict transfer was not a final order and therefore not immediately appealable.

Several buyers filed lawsuits in district courts across the country alleging that the defendants, manufacturers of compressors, violated federal antitrust laws by fixing prices and dividing markets. The multidistrict panel centralized pretrial proceedings for these cases in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. Once in district court, a number of plaintiffs filed a single consolidated amended complaint that combined all of their allegations. The district court dismissed some of the claims in the consolidated complaint. As a result, six plaintiffs had all of their claims dismissed. The six plaintiffs appealed and simultaneously asked the district court to enter a final judgment under FRCP 54(b) or to certify an interlocutory appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1292. The district court denied both requests.

The Sixth Circuit agreed, holding that the district court's order disposing of some of the claims in the consolidated complaint was non-final, barring a Rule 54(b) judgment, and non-appealable, barring certification under 28 U.S.C. § 1292. The court determined that the consolidated complaint filed by the plaintiffs superseded their individual complaints. Since the cases were consolidated into one, the district court's ruling that disposed of only some claims was not final.

The Sixth Circuit rejected the plaintiffs' argument that the consolidated complaint was merely an administrative document with no legal force. The court emphasized that its holding was based on the plaintiffs' decision to file a legally operative consolidated complaint. The court determined that the consolidated complaint was operative based on:

After a multidistrict transfer, plaintiffs' counsel that want to file a consolidated complaint only as an administrative summary, and not for legal effect, should clearly label the amended pleading as an administrative summary to avoid confusion and make their intention clear.