Cmh Homes, Petitioners v. Adam Perez, Respondent

Summary

The Texas Supreme Court held that Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 51.016, which borrows federal appealability standards, does not permit interlocutory appeal of a trial court's order appointing an arbitrator under section 5 of the Federal Arbitration Act, because such orders appear in neither the appealable 9 U.S.C. 16(a) categories nor the unappealable 16(b) categories and the order at issue remained interlocutory. Because the FAA supplies no appeal from such an order, mandamus remains the exclusive review route, and the Court—invoking the bona fide-attempt doctrine and Texas's disfavor for dismissing appeals over formal defects—instructed the court of appeals to consider CMH Homes's interlocutory appeal, which had expressly requested mandamus treatment in the alternative, as a petition for writ of mandamus. The Court expressly reserved the merits, declining to decide whether the trial judge's appointment of Gilberto Hinojosa was improper.