Opinion
02-24-00096-CV
06-20-2024
Jerald Miller, Appellant v. City of Fort Worth, Appellee
On Appeal from County Court at Law No. 3 Tarrant County, Texas Trial Court No. 2023-008926-3
Before Wallach, J.; Sudderth, C.J.; and Walker, J.
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Per Curiam
Appellant Jerald Miller, pro se, has attempted to appeal from orders that are not appealable, and we must therefore dismiss his appeal.
The dispute in the underlying suit is over the ownership of a dog that Miller alleged he had found on the street. Miller contended that he had taken the dog to the City of Fort Worth's animal control department, which documented that the dog had no microchip; that he had claimed ownership of the dog; and that several months later, Victoria Martinez, a/k/a Alisa Martinez, and Amber Hernandez filed a false police report to gain possession of the dog. He alleged that all charges against him were dropped, "but by that time [Martinez and Hernandez] had already taken control of [Miller's] property," i.e., the dog. Miller sued Martinez and Hernandez for conversion and related claims.
Miller applied for subpoenas for multiple City of Fort Worth employees. After receiving the subpoenas, the City filed objections and motions for protective orders asserting that Miller had not complied with Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 205; that the subpoenas were overly broad, abusive, and posed an undue burden; and that they requested irrelevant and confidential information. The trial court signed two orders granting the City's objections and ordering that the City need not comply with the subpoenas and that its "departments and personnel are protected from further subpoena in this matter." Miller appeals from those two orders.
For example, he requested production from a City attorney of, among other documents, "the entire case file" for fourteen open records requests; copies of any emails referencing Miller since February 6, 2023; training manuals for city attorney personnel relating to open records requests; employee reviews and evaluations for six individuals; "[i]ncoming mail logs, or records of any type and/or kind for the City Attorney['s] office from December 6, 2023 to the present"; and "[a]ny emails, records of communications[, and] call logs between [a specific employee with the City] and the Records Access Officer's [sic] for the following City Departments: A) Animal Control; B) IT Solutions; C) Human Resources; D) Code Compliance; E) [t]he Fort Worth Police Department;" and four individuals.
We have jurisdiction to consider appeals only from final judgments and from certain interlocutory orders made immediately appealable by statute. See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Ann. § 51.014; Lehmann v. Har-Con Corp., 39 S.W.3d 191, 195 (Tex. 2001). This is not the first time that Miller has brought an appeal and faced this jurisdictional hurdle. See Miller v. City of Fort Worth, No. 02-22-00476-CV, 2023 WL 2179457, at *1 (Tex. App.-Fort Worth Feb. 23, 2023, no pet.) (mem. op.); Miller v. Tarrant Cnty. Appraisal Dist., No. 02-22-00328-CV, 2022 WL 5240534, at *1 (Tex. App.-Fort Worth Oct. 6, 2022, no pet.) (mem. op.). Because this appeal did not appear to be from a final judgment or an appealable interlocutory order, we notified Miller that we could dismiss the appeal unless he or another party filed a response showing grounds for the appeal's continuing. Although this court has granted Miller two extensions, he has not filed a response.
The orders from which Miller attempts to appeal are not final orders and do not appear to be appealable interlocutory orders. See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Ann. § 51.014; Poff v. Poff, No. 09-23-00401-CV, 2024 WL 1451181, at *1 (Tex. App.-Beaumont Apr. 4, 2024, no pet. h.) (per curiam) (mem. op.); Nelson v. Brenda J. Williams & Assocs., No. 05-23-00412-CV, 2023 WL 3814050, at *1 (Tex. App.-Dallas June 5, 2023, no pet.) (mem. op.). Accordingly, we do not have jurisdiction over this appeal. See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Ann. § 51.012; Lehmann, 39 S.W.3d at 195. We therefore dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction. See Tex. R. App. P. 42.3(a), 43.2(f).