7.1.1 Appellate Jurisdiction

A tenant may suspensively appeal an eviction judgment from city, parish, or district court if a verified answer was filed prior to trial stating an affirmative defense.1  To suspend execution of the warrant of possession, the motion for suspensive appeal and appeal bond must be filed within 24 hours of rendition of the judgment.2

If proper procedure is not followed for a suspensive appeal, the appellate court may continue the appeal as devolutive where appropriate.3  The devolutive appeal will not prevent execution of the eviction judgment, but the tenant will not be required to pay a suspensive appeal bond. The delay period for a devolutive appeal of a city or parish court eviction judgment is 10 days.4

The trial court is divested of jurisdiction upon the granting of the order of appeal and timely paying of bond.5  Normally the trial court would retain jurisdiction in limited circumstances, but in evictions the trial court does not retain jurisdiction to convert a suspensive appeal to a devolutive appeal when the bond is not timely filed.6

Appeals of all eviction cases from city court or parish court are taken to the court of appeal in the same manner as an appeal from the district court.7

• 1La. C.C.P. art. 4735.
• 2Id.
• 3Pledge Dev. Corp. v. Big Kahuna Enters., Inc., 376 So. 2d 600, 602 (La. App. 4 Cir. 1979) (suspensive appeal of eviction converted to devolutive appeal); Polk v. Buckhalter, 2018-0053 (La. App. 1 Cir. 09/24/18), 258 So. 3d 816, 818 (same); Vision Aviation, L.L.C. v. Airport Auth., 09-742 (La. App. 3 Cir. 07/29/09), 13 So. 3d 809 (same).
• 4La. C.C.P. art. 5002(A)–(B).
• 5La. C.C.P. art 2088(A).
• 6La. C.C.P. art. 2088(B). However, if your client cannot pay the bond and you are still within the 10-day delay to file a motion for devolutive appeal, you can argue the 2088(B) exception does not apply.
• 7La. C.C.P. art. 5001; La. C.C.P. art. 2081, et seq.