The district court denied summary judgment, and when the defendants filed an appeal claiming that they were entitled to qualified immunity, the district court said that this appeal was "frivolous."
The Ninth Circuit panel unanimously agreed with the defendant that the appeal was not only not frivolous, but was affirmatively meritorious. Finding that the defendant was entitled to qualified immunity as a matter of law.
Proof positive that you shouldn't always believe whatever the district court says.
