Opinion
No. 06-10-00073-CV
Date Submitted: July 27, 2010.
Date Decided: July 28, 2010.
On Appeal from the County Court at Law Bowie County, Texas, Trial Court No. 10C0978-2CCL.
Before MORRISS, C.J., CARTER and MOSELEY, JJ.
MEMORANDUM OPINION
This is an appeal by Noel Frame, acting pro se, from the order of transfer issued by the Bowie County Court, transferring this contested probate proceeding to the Bowie County Court at Law, on June 4, 2010.
As a general rule, parties may appeal only from a final judgment. De Ayala v. Mackie, 193 S.W.3d 575, 578 (Tex. 2006). But see TEX. CIV. PRAC. REM. CODE ANN. § 51.014(a) (Vernon 2008) (listing interlocutory orders that are appealable). Probate proceedings give rise to a recognized exception to that general rule since multiple judgments may be rendered on discrete issues before the entire probate proceeding is concluded. See De Ayala, 193 S.W.3d at 578. But not all probate orders are appealable. Id. Courts assessing "sufficient attributes of finality to confer appellate jurisdiction" have looked to whether an order resulted from the adjudication of a "substantial right" or whether it disposed of "all issues in the phase of the proceeding for which it was brought." Id.
The Texas Supreme Court has adopted the following standard to determine the finality of a probate court order:
If there is an express statute, such as the one for the complete heirship judgment, declaring the phase of the probate proceedings to be final and appealable, that statute controls. Otherwise, if there is a proceeding of which the order in question may logically be considered a part, but one or more pleadings also part of that proceeding raise issues or parties not disposed of, then the probate order is interlocutory.
Crowson v. Wakeham, 897 S.W.2d 779, 783 (Tex. 1995). Under this test, an order that merely "sets the stage" for further resolution is interlocutory and not appealable. De Ayala, 193 S.W.3d at 579; Fernandez v. Bustamante, 305 S.W.3d 333, 338 (Tex. App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 2010, no pet.). There is no express statute that declares a decision to grant or deny a transfer of a case to county court at law to be final and appealable. Moreover, it has been determined that, under Crowson, a transfer order could never, by itself, be appealable. Forlano v. Joyner, 906 S.W.2d 118, 120 (Tex. App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 1995, no writ).
The proceeding with which the transfer order is logically related is the probate of the Frame estate. Because the entire probate proceeding was transferred, and because the probate proceeding has clearly not been finalized, the transfer order is interlocutory.
Accordingly, we dismiss Frame's appeal for want of jurisdiction.