Opinion
No. 02-19-00297-CV
08-15-2019
CHARLES CLEVELAND NOWDEN, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee
On Appeal from the 297th District Court Tarrant County, Texas
Trial Court No. 1080543D Before Gabriel, Kerr, and Birdwell, JJ.
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Appellant Charles Cleveland Nowden attempts to appeal from the trial court's failure to act on his April 2019 "nunc pro tunc" motion seeking the return of property seized pursuant to a 2007 search warrant. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 47.01a. This is Nowden's second attempt to appeal from the trial court's failure to rule on a motion seeking the return of the property seized in 2007. See Nowden v. State, No. 02-17-00094-CR, 2017 WL 2979830, at *1-2 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth July 13, 2017, no pet.) (mem. op., not designated for publication). As in that appeal, we informed Nowden by letter that it appeared he was not appealing from a final judgment or from an otherwise appealable order and notified him that we would dismiss his appeal for want of jurisdiction unless he showed grounds for continuing it. See id. at *1; see also Tex. R. App. P. 26.1, 42.3, 44.3. Nowden has not responded.
Absent a final judgment or an otherwise appealable order, we have no jurisdiction over Nowden's attempted appeal. See, e.g., Bison Bldg. Materials, Ltd. v. Aldridge, 422 S.W.3d 582, 585 (Tex. 2012); Nowden, 2017 WL 2979830, at *1-2. Even though Nowden's motion implicated his attempts to recover seized property, which is appealable by statute, such an appeal requires an order to invoke our jurisdiction. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann. arts. 47.01a, 47.12; Nowden, 2017 WL 2979830, at *2. The trial court has not signed an order or otherwise acted on Nowden's motion; thus, we dismiss Nowden's attempted appeal for want of jurisdiction. See Tex. R. App. P. 43.2(f).
/s/Lee Gabriel
Lee Gabriel
Justice Delivered: August 15, 2019