§ 51.014.Appeal from Interlocutory Order

The most consulted section in this chapter, and the exception to the finality rule.

Eighteen categories of interlocutory order are appealable, and they fall into recognisable groups.

Orders about the shape of the case: appointing a receiver or trustee or refusing to vacate such an appointment; certifying or refusing to certify a class; and granting or refusing a temporary injunction or ruling on a motion to dissolve one.

Orders about who is properly before the court: granting or denying a special appearance under Rule 120a, except under the Family Code; and granting or denying a plea to the jurisdiction by a governmental unit.

Orders denying an immunity or a constitutional protection: denial of summary judgment based on an assertion of immunity by a state or local officer or employee, and denial of summary judgment based on a free speech or free press claim or defense by the media or a person whose communication it published.

Those two share a rationale. Immunity and the constitutional protections are protections from suit, not merely from liability, and a party forced to trial before the question is answered has lost the protection whatever happens afterwards.

Orders under the code’s own dismissal mechanisms: the health care expert report provisions, the asbestos and silica dismissal provision, and the citizens participation act dismissal motion.

The remaining entries are narrow and specific — an electric utility’s summary judgment in a recreational use case, a large municipality’s motion in certain nuisance actions, preliminary determinations on health care claims, objections and motions under the medical billing chapter, a contractor’s summary judgment under the design-defect provision, and a motion under a Government Code provision.

Subsection (b) governs stays, and the details matter. An interlocutory appeal stays the commencement of trial, except an appeal about a temporary injunction or in a Family Code suit. Appeals about class certification, official immunity, a governmental plea to the jurisdiction, or a citizens participation act dismissal stay all other proceedings as well.

Subsection (c) prevents the stay being used as a delay device. The automatic stay is unavailable for an immunity summary judgment, special appearance or jurisdictional plea unless it was filed and set by the date in the scheduling order or the 180th day after the defendant’s original answer or first responsive pleading.

Subsections (d) to (h) create the permissive appeal. A trial court may permit an appeal from an otherwise unappealable order involving a controlling question of law as to which there is a substantial ground for difference of opinion where an immediate appeal may materially advance the ultimate termination of the litigation. The party applies to the court of appeals within 15 days; the court of appeals may accept, must state its specific reason if it declines, and the supreme court may review that refusal de novo and direct acceptance.