Opinion
No. 10-03-187-CV
Opinion delivered and filed July 9, 2003
From the 85th District Court, Brazos County, Texas, Trial Court # 46961-CV.
Appeal dismissed for want of jurisdiction
Before Chief Justice DAVIS, Justice VANCE, and Justice GRAY.
MEMORANDUM OPINION
The court rendered a summary judgment in favor of Appellees. Appellants timely filed a notice of appeal with the district clerk giving "notice of their desire to appeal to the Texas Court of Appeals, either the First or Fourteenth Districts." Because Appellants invoked the jurisdiction of a Houston Court of Appeals and not this Court, we dismiss the appeal docketed in this Court under the above cause number.
In accordance with the notice of appeal, the First Court of Appeals docketed the appeal under its cause number 01-03-272-CV on March 20, 2003. Nevertheless, the district clerk delivered the clerk's record to the Clerk of this Court on June 12. The cover of the clerk's record states that the judgment is being "[a]ppealed to the 10th Court of Appeals." Accordingly, the Clerk of this Court docketed the appeal under our cause number 10-03-187-CV.
The only "document" by which the jurisdiction of this Court has been arguably invoked is the clerk's record itself. However, the notice of appeal is the instrument which invokes an appellate court's jurisdiction. Tex.R.App.P. 25.1(b). A district clerk cannot invoke the jurisdiction of this Court by transmitting a clerk's record which contains a notice of appeal plainly invoking the jurisdiction of another court.
The notice of appeal filed in this case invoked the jurisdiction of a Houston Court of Appeals, not this Court. See id. 25.1(d)(4) (notice of appeal must "state the court to which the appeal is taken"). Accordingly, we dismiss the appeal docketed in this Court under cause number 10-03-187-CV for want of jurisdiction. The Clerk of this Court is ordered to promptly return the clerk's record to the district clerk and provide a copy of this opinion to the First Court of Appeals. See Cook v. McGraw, 25 S.W.3d 790, 792 (Tex.App.-Waco 2000, no pet.).