In Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541 (1949), the Supreme Court was presented with the issue of whether a federal court was required to apply 1945 N.J. Laws 131, rendering appellee liable for the "reasonable expenses and attorney's fees" of appellant's defense, in the event appellee was unsuccessful in its shareholder suit. The issue necessitated the review of a decision that was not a final judgment, nor did it constitute an appealable interlocutory judgment. In proceeding to the merits of the appeal, the Court opined: ". . . The purpose of the collateral order doctrine is to combine in one review all stages of the proceeding that effectively may be reviewed and corrected if and when final judgment results. But this order of the U.S. District Court did not make any step toward final disposition of the merits of the case and will not be merged in final judgment. When that time comes, it will be too late effectively to review the present order, and the rights conferred by the N.J. statute, if it is applicable, will have been lost, probably irreparably. We conclude that the matters embraced in the decision appealed from are not of such an interlocutory nature as to affect, or to be affected by, the decision of the merits of this case." This decision appears to fall in that small class which finally determines claims of right separable from, and collateral to, rights asserted in the action, too important to be denied review and too independent of the cause itself to require that appellate consideration be deferred until the whole case is adjudicated. (Id. at 546.)