Roy Jon v. Victor Tuatagola--Appeal from 5th District Court of Bowie County

In The

Court of Appeals

Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana

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No. 06-06-00010-CV

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ROY JON, Appellant

V.

VICTOR TUATAGOLA, Appellee

On Appeal from the 5th Judicial District Court

Bowie County, Texas

Trial Court No. 04C1327-005

Before Morriss, C.J., Ross and Carter, JJ.

Memorandum Opinion by Justice Carter

MEMORANDUM OPINION

In a related case, Roy Jon appealed the trial court's decision to dismiss his lawsuit against several employees of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. See Jon v. Tuatagola, No. 06-05-00116-CV. Without having previously filed a motion for new trial, Jon filed his notice of appeal in that case August 31, 2005. Therefore, under our Rules of Civil Procedure, the trial court's plenary jurisdiction over the suit expired thirty days following that court's entry of its August 19, 2005, final judgment. See Tex. R. Civ. P. 329b(d).

Almost two months later (and well beyond the expiration of the trial court's plenary jurisdiction), Jon filed a motion to reinstate his lawsuit, which the trial court granted November 1, 2005. Not to be deterred by the possibility of actually receiving the relief he requested, Jon appealed the trial court's order of reinstatement November 9, 2005.

The district clerk forwarded to this Court a record of the reinstatement proceedings, but the district clerk erroneously labeled the record as a supplement to be filed in connection with Jon's other appeal (from the dismissal of the lawsuit). After conducting our own review of these documents, we discovered Jon's notice of appeal from the reinstatement order should constitute an appeal separate and apart from cause number 06-05-00116-CV.

Accordingly, we assign the documents related to Jon's appeal of the trial court's reinstatement order to cause number 06-06-00010-CV. However, because Jon has appealed an order that is neither final nor a permitted interlocutory appeal, we dismiss this case for want of jurisdiction.

Jack Carter

Justice

Date Submitted: January 18, 2006

Date Decided: January 19, 2006