Opinion
No. 05-08-01453-CV
Opinion Filed March 25, 2009.
On Appeal from the County Court at Law No. 4, Dallas County, Texas, Trial Court Cause No. CC-08-08345-D.
Before Justices RICHTER, LANG, and MURPHY.
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Appellant appealed to the County Court at Law No. 4 from a forcible detainer judgment rendered in the justice court. By order dated October 21, 2008, the judge of the County Court at Law No. 4 entered an order directing appellant to post the required appeal bond by October 29, 2008, or the case would be dismissed for want of prosecution on December 1, 2008. On October 29, 2008, appellant filed a notice of appeal from the trial court's October 29, 2008 order. In response to our jurisdictional inquiry, appellant argues that because he cannot proceed with the appeal in the County Court at Law No. 4 until the question of his ability to proceed as a pauper has been decided, the order requiring him to post a bond is separately appealable. Appellee did not file a jurisdictional brief. For the reasons set forth, we conclude we have no jurisdiction over the appeal. Appellate courts have jurisdiction over final judgments and such interlocutory orders as the legislature deems appealable. Lehmann v. Har-Con Corp., 39 S.W.3d 191, 195 (Tex. 2001); Ruiz v. Ruiz, 946 S.W.2d 123, 124 (Tex.App. 1997, no writ). An order requiring appellant to post an appeal bond to proceed with an appeal to a county court at law from the justice court is not a final judgment, nor is it an appealable interlocutory order. See generally Tex. Civ. Prac. Rem. Code Ann. § 51.014 (Vernon 2008); Tex. R. Civ. P. 749-749c; see also McGaughy v. Lamm, 2000 WL 147649, at * 2 (Tex.App. 2000, no pet.). Nothing in the record before us reflects that appellant's case has been dismissed in the County Court at Law No. 4 or that a final judgment has otherwise been rendered by that court.
Because there is no final judgment or other appealable order, we dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction.