Houston’s First District Court of Appeals has dismissed an interlocutory appeal over a trial court’s order compelling arbitration “for want of jurisdiction.” In Bashaw v. Republic State Mortg. Co., No. 01-14-00427-CV (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.], Sept. 4, 2014), Francis Bashaw entered into a branch agreement with Republic State Mortgage Company. About five years later, Bashaw filed a lawsuit “alleging breach of fiduciary duty, fraud by nondisclosure, and defalcation” against the mortgage company in Harris County. Almost one year later, Republic State filed a motion to dismiss the case and an alternative motion to compel arbitration. The trial court granted Republic State’s motion to compel arbitration and stayed court proceedings for six months.
Later, the mortgage company filed an amended motion and the trial court again issued a stay in the court proceedings pending arbitration. Bashaw responded to this order by filing a notice of appeal with Houston’s First District. Republic State then filed a motion to dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction. According to the mortgage company, the appellate court did not have jurisdiction to consider the case because the lower court’s order was “a non-appealable interlocutory order.” After Bashaw failed to respond to Republic State’s motion, the Court of Appeals held:
“Whether under the Texas Arbitration Act or the Federal Arbitration Act, there is no interlocutory appeal over an order granting a motion to compel arbitration. As a result, we have no jurisdiction over this appeal and must dismiss it.” Koontz v. Citibank (South Dakota), N.A., No. 01-05-01140-CV, 2007 WL 1299674, at *1 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] May 3, 2007, no pet.) (mem. op., internal citations omitted); see In re Gulf Exploration, LLC, 289 S.W.3d 836, 839–41 (Tex. 2009) (quoting Perry Homes v. Cull, 258 S.W.3d 580, 586 n.13 (Tex. 2008)); Ortiz v. Junell Law Firm, No. 14-11-00805-CV, 2011 WL 5554620, at *1 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] Nov. 15, 2011, pet. denied) (mem. op.).
Because Houston’s First District Court of Appeals lacked jurisdiction to consider Bashaw’s interlocutory appeal over the trial court’s order compelling arbitration, the appellate court granted Republic State’s motion to dismiss the appeal.
Photo credit: 401(K) 2013 / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Related Posts
Dallas Appeals Court Vacates Order Denying Arbitration in Marketing and Sales Case
Dallas Appeals Court Compels Arbitration in Interlocutory Appeal
Texas Court of Appeals Rules on Interlocutory Appeal of Motion to Compel Arbitration
San Antonio Appeals Court Holds Signatory May Not Waive Non-Signatory’s Right to Arbitrate
New Arbitration Petition Before the U.S. Supreme Court
Houston COA Denies Petition for Mandamus Relief Over Arbitration Order
