The judge agreed with Windstream that the “best effort” clause was intended to cover outages with external causes, like weather, and not ones caused by Charter, such as making a decision to automate its shutdown process.
Judge Drain’s finding was on liability only, leaving damages questions for trial.
at this point, any appeal would be limited to the finding on liability and an appeal would need to find fault with drain's ruling on "best effort".
good luck with either one of those at this point. if charter lets the damages question go to trial and (1) damages can be determined and (2) any assessment of damages is thought to be excessive, charter might appeal a damages assessment.
if charter were to decide to settle the damages question and not let it go to trial, then appeal would not be possible on that issue.
from the google machine:
In rare situations, a party can appeal an order that is not final, but only if the U.S. District Court or the bankruptcy appellate panel grants the party's motion for leave to appeal. The court that will handle the appeal will consider whether the existing law is unclear or whether an appeal is important in advancing the overall litigation case.
