Gibbs Ford, Inc. v. United Truck Leasing Corp.

We transferred the case to this court on our own motion to decide three questions posed by a single justice of the Appeals Court. The main question is whether “a single justice of an appellate court [may] modify an order of a trial judge dismissing a count or counts in a complaint, but not the entire complaint?” 2 We conclude that where, as here, the trial judge does not make an express determination that there is no reason for delay and an express order for entry of judgment, see Mass. R. Civ. P. 54 (b), a trial judge’s order dismissing some but not all counts in a complaint is interlocutory…