S. Ct. Civ. Nos. 2015-0001 and 2015-0009

Considering an initial appeal taken from a Superior Court order denying a motion to nullify various resolutions passed by the board of directors of a corporation and denying a request to appoint a receiver for such corporation and a subsequent order denying a motion for reconsideration of this decision, and a second appeal taken from an order adopting a plan, created by the Superior Court, to wind up the affairs of a partnership between the litigants, as well as a cross-appeal filed therein, all of which were consolidated by order dated February 20, 2015, are dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. Section 33(b)(2) of title 4 of the Virgin Islands Code, construed in a manner consistent with the federal statute it is modelled after, 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1)-(2), authorizes appellate jurisdiction in three discrete situations: the appointment of a receiver, the refusal to wind up a receivership, and the refusal to take steps to accomplish the purposes of a receivership. Here, appellant does not challenge the Superior Court's decision to appoint a liquidating partner and to establish a wind up plan for the partnership, and the Superior Court's plan cannot be characterized as a refusal to take steps to accomplish the purposes of winding up the partnership. Rather, appellant only challenges various matters that fall within the administration of winding up the partnership, over which the Superior Court possesses considerable discretion and which are not immediately appealable. In addition, the Superior Court's orders governing how the partnership is wound up cannot be appealable as injunctions under 4 V.I.C. § 33(b)(1) because treating such directives as injunctions would render 4 V.I.C. § 33(b)(2) completely redundant and "superfluous," and would undermine the Legislature's desire to treat orders relevant to receiver ships differently than orders relevant to injunctions. Accordingly, appellee's motion to dismiss the consolidated appeal is granted, and the consolidated appeal and cross-appeal are dismissed for lack of jurisdiction without considering the merits of any of the arguments the litigants have raised.