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La Buy v. Howes Leather Co.
This case illustrates an outlet to the final decision doctrine when no other exception is available: the petition for a writ of mandamus under Section 1651.
Generally, there are at least two situations in which a court of appeals can issue a writ of mandamus. In the first, a "supervisory writ of mandamus," an appeals court corrects a practice in which a district court engages repeatedly, or in which (the appeals court fears) the district court might engage repeatedly unless the appellate court takes action. La Buy is an example of this kind of writ. This type of writ is powerful when used, but it is used only rarely, hopefully (I don't research in this area, so I do not know) because district courts do not frequently engage repeatedly in erroneous practices.
The second kind of mandamus writ concerns a party's argument that a transparently incorrect district court order will cause the party to suffer a serious harm that cannot be corrected later (what does this remind you of?). The next entry discusses this kind of writ. It is more common than the supervisory type.
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