On September 27, 2016, in McCullough v. World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit clarified when judgments entered into in consolidated cases are final for purposes of appellate jurisdiction ( (2d Cir. Sept. 27, 2016)).

The US District Court for the District of Connecticut consolidated six cases, five of which were brought against World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE). The court granted WWE's motion to dismiss for two of the cases, and the plaintiffs appealed. WWE relied on Hageman v. City Investing Co. and moved to dismiss the appeals on the ground that other consolidated cases remained pending in the district court (851 F.2d 69 (2d Cir. 1988)). The plaintiffs opposed dismissal and urged the court to reconsider Hageman in light of the US Supreme Court's decision in Gelboim v. Bank of America Corp. (135 S. Ct. 897 (2015)).

In Hageman, although the court dismissed the appeal, it noted that there is a strong presumption that a judgment disposing of a claim in a consolidated action is an appealable final decision. In Gelboim, the Supreme Court ruled that an appeal should not have been dismissed because it was an appeal from a judgment dismissing one case that had been consolidated only for MDL purposes (and not consolidated for all purposes). The Supreme Court explained that cases consolidated for MDL pretrial proceedings retain their separate identities, so an order disposing of one case should qualify as an appealable final decision.

The court granted WWE's motion to dismiss the appeals because: