In The
Court of Appeals
Ninth District of Texas at Beaumont
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NO. 09-14-00340-CV
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PATRICIA POWERS, Appellant
V.
WHISPERING OAKS APARTMENTS, Appellee
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On Appeal from the County Court at Law No. 2
Montgomery County, Texas
Trial Cause No. 14-28069
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MEMORANDUM OPINION
Patricia Powers attempted to appeal certain Justice Court proceedings to the
County Court at Law. On June 4, 2014, the County Court at Law dismissed
Powers’s appeal for lack of jurisdiction. On August 13, 2014, Patricia Powers filed
a notice of appeal. We questioned our jurisdiction. Powers filed a response in
which she states, “Your court lacks jurisdiction in this matter. The petition for
appeal is pending in Montgomery County Court at Law #2, the Honorable Judge
Claudia [Laird] has failed to rule.” We notified the parties that the June 4, 2014,
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order of dismissal was a final disposition of the case, and we instructed them to
identify a document that shows whether Powers triggered the extended timetable
for perfecting an appeal. See Tex. R. App. P. 26.1(a). In response, Powers mailed
to this Court copies of a document she originally mailed to this Court on March 10,
2014, which was before the County Court at Law had received the case from the
Justice Court. Powers also sent this Court a copy of her original response to this
Court, in which Powers states her position that this Court lacks jurisdiction.
The order of dismissal signed by the trial judge on June 4, 2014, was a final
disposition of the case. See generally Searcy v. Sagullo, 915 S.W.2d 595, 597
(Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1996, no writ) (“[T]he county court properly
dismissed the matter for lack of jurisdiction because the notice of appeal and
appeal bond were not timely filed.”). The time for perfecting an appeal from the
County Court at Law to the Court of Appeals commenced with the signing of the
order that dismissed Powers’s attempted appeal of the Justice Court’s judgment.
See Tex. R. App. P. 26.1.
In response to a notice from this Court that her appeal would be dismissed
unless she showed that this Court has jurisdiction to proceed, Powers persisted in
her position that this Court lacks jurisdiction. Powers does not argue that within
thirty days after the County Court at Law dismissed her appeal from the Justice
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Court, she either filed a notice of appeal of the judgment of the County Court at
Law to the Court of Appeals, or she filed another document in a bona fide attempt
to perfect an appeal to this Court. See id. Powers does not contend that she timely
filed a motion for new trial, a motion to modify the judgment, a motion to
reinstate, or a request for findings of fact and conclusions of law. See id. The
notice of appeal was filed more than thirty days after the trial court signed the
order that finally disposed of the case. See id. The appeal is subject to dismissal for
want of jurisdiction. See Tex. R. App. P. 42.3(a). We dismiss the appeal for lack of
jurisdiction. See Tex. R. App. P. 43.2(f).
APPEAL DISMISSED.
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LEANNE JOHNSON
Justice
Submitted on October 22, 2014
Opinion Delivered October 23, 2014
Before McKeithen, C.J., Kreger and Johnson, JJ.
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