Which of the following statements is false?

• A. If a county court refuses to take jurisdiction of a municipal court appeal, the defendant must pay the municipal court's fine.
• B. When counting the appeal time, the court counts the day the judgment is entered.
• C. Defendants in non-record municipal courts can plead guilty and appeal a case.
• D. If a defendant fails to present the appeal bond to the court within the required time, the court can refuse to send it to the county court.

Answer: (D)

In municipal court appeals the key idea is what it takes to perfect an appeal to the county court. An appeal isn’t complete until the defendant timely files both the notice of appeal and the appeal bond. The bond stays the effect of the judgment while the appeal is pending, and the transfer of the case to the county court happens only after perfection.

The statement about the bond is false because if the defendant misses the required time to present the appeal bond, the appeal isn’t perfected. There isn’t a discretionary option for the court to “refuse to send” the case to the county court while the bond is late. Instead, without a timely bond, the appeal cannot proceed and is effectively not perfected, typically resulting in dismissal of the appeal and enforcement of the judgment rather than forwarding the case to county court.

The other points align with how this process works: if the county court declines jurisdiction, the defendant must still deal with the fine; appeal time is counted from the judgment entry in a manner that starts the clock (with the rules governing counting on the judgment date); and defendants in non-record municipal courts can plead guilty and still appeal.