In re Christopher Jones--Appeal from 12th District Court of Madison County

IN THE

TENTH COURT OF APPEALS

No. 10-08-00242-CV

In re Christopher Jones

Original Proceeding

MEMORANDUM Opinion

Relator Christopher Jones has filed an application (petition) for writ of mandamus against Joyce Batson, the District Clerk of Madison County relating to her alleged failure to file, serve, and process Jones s filings in an underlying action in which he is the plaintiff.

Neither the petition nor application nor the affidavit was properly served on the District Clerk. There was not a proper proof of service of the petition (the certificate of service reflects service on the Clerk of this Court), and there was no proof of service for Jones s affidavit of inability to pay costs or his notification affidavit. See Tex. R. App. P. 9.5(a), (d). We use Rule 2 to suspend the service requirement of Rule 9.5 and proceed to the merits of the mandamus. Tex. R. App. P. 2, 9.5.

A court of appeals has no jurisdiction to issue a writ of mandamus against a district clerk except to protect its jurisdiction. See Tex. Gov t Code Ann. 22.221(b) (Vernon 2004); In re Bernard, 993 S.W.2d 453, 454 (Tex. App. Houston [1st Dist.] 1999, orig. proceeding). Jones s application does not allege facts that require us to protect our jurisdiction, so we do not have jurisdiction to decide Jones s petition for writ of mandamus against the District Clerk. We dismiss the petition for want of jurisdiction.

BILL VANCE

Justice

Before Chief Justice Gray,

Justice Vance, and

Justice Reyna

Petition dismissed

Opinion delivered and filed July 30, 2008

[OT06]