Court Opinion

ID: 9674423
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:28:20.478331+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:27.525681
License: Public Domain

GONZALEZ, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. While I agree with the majority that the rules do not permit a simultaneous appeal on parallel tracks, one under Tex.R.Civ.P. 354 (cost bond) and one under Tex.R.Civ.P. 355 (affidavit of inability to pay cost), and though I agree that they ordinarily exclude one another, for the reasons set out below, I do not agree that they exclude each other in this case. I would therefore withdraw this Court’s original opinion, grant appellants’ motion for leave to file a petition for writ of mandamus, and consider the issue of whether the trial court abused its discretion in denying appellants’ pauper’s affidavit.
Here, while both the affidavit and the appeal bond were filed on the same day, no showing was made or inquired into by this Court as to which document was filed first. The majority is acting as if the cost bond was filed first without basis in fact.
If appellant filed his affidavit first, he should be allowed to proceed upon that affidavit until it is conclusively established whether or not appellants’ affidavit will be sustained. In McCartney v. Mead, 541 S.W.2d 202 (Tex.Civ.App. — Houston [1st Dist.] 1976, no writ), the court considered whether the filing of an appeal bond after an order sustaining the contest to an affidavit of inability to pay costs rendered moot a request for a mandamus to compel the trial court to approve relator’s affidavit. There, the court stated:
If relator, at the hearing on the contest to her affidavit, met the burden of proof imposed upon her by Rule 355, she was entitled to have the contest overruled at that time. If her affidavit is ultimately sustained, her appeal should be considered as having been perfected on the date the trial court entered its order on the contest. Rule 363, T.R.C.P. In such event, the subsequent filing of an appeal bond would have no legal effect on the appeal which would already have been perfected. Therefore, the matters raised by relator’s application for mandamus are not moot. [Emphasis added.]
Id. at 204. The court next addressed the issue of whether the trial court abused its discretion in sustaining the contest. This is what I believe we should be doing today.
Under Tex.R.Civ.P. 363, because of the contest to their affidavit, appeal was not perfected by appellants’ filing of that affidavit. Instead, ⅛ will be perfected if and when the contest to it is overruled. If we overrule the trial court’s sustaining the contest, then under McCartney, appellants *176will have perfected their appeal based on their affidavit. The filing of an appeal bond should have no effect until it is conclusively established that appellants do not have the right to proceed under their affidavit. Before we can dismiss this appeal, we must address the discretion of the trial court in sustaining the contest to appellants’ inability to post bond, and only in this manner can we determine what effect, if any, the filing of an appeal bond has in the case before us.
Finally, I point out that all authority relied upon by the majority to support its dismissal of this appeal is based upon rules which have subsequently been substantially amended. The majority apparently also relies on authority which would require appellants to abandon any claim to a pauper’s affidavit in the event they also file an appeal bond.
Such a position had some merit under the old law when an appeal bond was set by rule at “a sum at least double the probable amount of the costs in the trial court and the cost of the statement of facts and transcription.” Naturally, if the party posted a bond which was actually equal to the costs of appeal, he could not in good conscience also claim that he could not afford to post this same bond. However, effective January 1, 1981, the rules have been amended to provide that $500.00 (unless otherwise set) shall be the standard amount for an appeal bond. Rule 354(a).1 Foreseeing that this amount could easily fail to provide adequate security for costs of appeal, the rule also allows for the increase or decrease of the amount upon the motion of any party or any interested officer of the Court.
This presents the problem we have before us today: a party who can afford a $500.00 bond, but allegedly cannot afford a bond which is later increased to over $40,-000.00.
While we cannot ignore the fact that the filing of a bond perfects appeal (Rule 363), we should also not ignore the fact that an affidavit can perfect-appeal. When a party manifests an intent to perfect under such an affidavit, we should not so strictly interpret the rules to the extent that we deny appellant an appeal. Rules 354 and 355 should be read together to ensure that while a party is not to be given a free appeal when he can afford to make at least some contribution toward the costs to be incurred, neither should he be denied the right to pursue his appeal. While the filing of an appeal bond surely has some weight in reviewing the trial court’s ruling on a contest to a filing of a pauper’s affidavit, it should not be taken as a blanket abandonment of the affidavit.
I believe that we acted prematurely in dismissing appellants’ appeal. Accordingly, I dissent.

. Effective April 1, 1984, this amount has been raised to $1,000.00.