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. 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.
• C. When counting the appeal time, the court counts the day the judgment is entered.
• D. Defendants in non-record municipal courts can plead guilty and appeal a case.

Answer: (B)

Understanding how a municipal court appeal works helps see why this statement is false. When someone wants to appeal a municipal court judgment to the county court, the appeal is perfected by timely filing a notice of appeal and, if the defendant wants to stay the judgment, posting an appeal bond. The key point is that the transmission of the case to the county court occurs once the appeal is properly perfected. If the appeal bond isn’t filed within the required time, the appeal isn’t perfected, and there isn’t a completed transmission to the county court to begin with. In other words, the court can’t “refuse to send” something that hasn’t been properly perfected to begin with; the process hinges on timely perfection, not on the court’s discretionary decision to withhold transmission because of a late bond.

For context: the other statements align with how the process is typically described. If the county court won’t take the appeal, the defendant still owes the municipal court’s fine. When counting the time to appeal, the judgment date is counted in the period. And in non-record municipal courts, a defendant can plead guilty and still pursue an appeal, often with a de novo review in the county court.