Rule Text
(a) General Rule. An appeal may be taken as of right from a collateral order of a trial court or other government unit.
(b) Definition. A collateral order is an order separable from and collateral to the main cause of action where the right involved is too important to be denied review and the question presented is such that if review is postponed until final judgment in the case, the claim will be irreparably lost.
Amendment history: The provisions of this Rule 313 adopted March 12, 1992, effective July 6, 1992, and shall govern all matters thereafter commenced; amended May 6, 1992, effective July 6, 1992, 22 Pa.B. 2675; amended July 7, 1997, effective in 60 days, 27 Pa.B. 3503; corrected August 8, 1997, 27 Pa.B. 3995; amended June 4, 2013, effective July 4, 2013, 43 Pa.B. 3327; amended January 7, 2020, effective August 1, 2020, 50 Pa.B. 505; amended May 18, 2023, effective immediately, 53 Pa.B. 2940. Immediately preceding text appears at serial page (411412).
Plain-English Summary (for reference only — not a substitute for the rule text above)
This summary is not the rule. The rule text controls.
Some court decisions can be appealed right away, even before a case is fully finished. Normally, you have to wait until a case is completely over before you can appeal. But this rule creates an exception for certain types of orders called "collateral orders."
A collateral order is a ruling that is separate from the main issue in the case. To qualify, three things must be true: the ruling has to be separate from the main case, the right at stake has to be important enough that a court should look at it now, and waiting until the end of the case would mean losing that right forever.
A good example would be a ruling about whether private information can be shared during a lawsuit. If a court wrongly allows sensitive information to be revealed, waiting until the end of the case to appeal would be too late since the damage would already be done. This rule lets a person appeal that kind of decision immediately.
Committee Notes
If an order meets the definition of a collateral order, it is appealed by filing a notice of appeal or petition for review.
Pa.R.A.P. 313 is a codification of existing case law with respect to collateral orders. See Pugar v. Greco, 394 A.2d 542, 545 (Pa. 1978) (quoting Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541 (1949)).
Pennsylvania appellate courts have found a number of classes of orders to fit the collateral order definition. Collateral order cases are collected and discussed in Darlington, McKeon, Schuckers and Brown, Pennsylvania Appellate Practice 2015-2016 Edition, § § 313:1—313:201. Examples include an order denying a petition to permit the payment of death taxes, Hankin v. Hankin, 487 A.2d 1363 (Pa. Super. 1985), and an order denying a petition for removal of an executor, Re: Estate of Georgiana, 458 A.2d 989 (Pa. Super. 1983), aff’d, 475 A.2d 744 (Pa. 1984), and an order denying a pre-trial motion to dismiss on double jeopardy grounds if the trial court does not also make a finding that the motion to dismiss is frivolous. See Commonwealth v. Brady, 508 A.2d 286, 289—91 (Pa. 1986) (allowing an immediate appeal from denial of double jeopardy claim under collateral order doctrine where trial court does not make a finding of frivolousness); Commonwealth v. Orie, 22 A.3d 1021 (Pa. 2011). An order denying a pre-trial motion to dismiss on double jeopardy grounds that also finds that the motion to dismiss is frivolous is not appealable as of right as a collateral order, but may be appealable by permission under Pa.R.A.P. 1311(a)(3).
Pa.R.A.P. 902 addresses whether separate notices of appeal are required to be filed where an order appealable under this rule is entered on more than one docket.
