Angel Mid-Jeff Joint Venture LLP v. Port Arthur Independent School District

Opinion

In The

Court of Appeals

Ninth District of Texas at Beaumont

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NO. 09-26-00271-CV

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ANGEL MID-JEFF JOINT VENTURE LLP, Appellant V.

PORT ARTHUR INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT, Appellee

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On Appeal from the County Court Law No. 1 Jefferson County, Texas

Trial Cause No. 26CCCV0306

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MEMORANDUM OPINION

Upon receiving the clerk’s record and an amended notice of accelerated appeal, through a letter issued by the Clerk of the Court we questioned our jurisdiction and requested responses from the parties. We dismiss the accelerated appeal for lack of jurisdiction.

On April 9, 2026, Appellee Port Arthur Independent School District (“PAISD”) filed an Original Petition in Condemnation. A citation was issued pursuant to an Order Granting Motion for Substituted Service. After the citation was

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returned served on June 1, 2026, PAISD filed a Motion for Order Authorizing Entry Upon Property and a notice for a hearing on July 2, 2026. Shortly before the scheduled time for the hearing, Appellant Angel Mid-Jeff Joint Venture LLP (“AMJ”) filed a Special Appearance to Plea to the Jurisdiction. AMJ argued the trial court lacked jurisdiction to proceed without any compliance with the administrative phase of the condemnation.

On July 6, 2026, the trial court signed an Order Appointing Special Commissioners and an Order Authorizing Entry Upon Property. AMJ filed a Notice of Appeal “from the denial of AMJ’s special appearance and plea to the jurisdiction, order authorizing entry on property and all portions of them[.]” The clerk’s record does not contain an order denying the Special Appearance to Plea to the Jurisdiction.

Upon receiving the Notice of Appeal, we notified the parties that the Notice of Appeal neither states the date of the judgment or order appealed from nor states that the appeal is an accelerated appeal, and we directed AMJ to file an Amended Notice of Appeal. AMJ filed an amended notice of appeal giving “notice of interlocutory appeal from the denial of AMJ’s special appearance and plea to the jurisdiction, effectively denied by orders of July 6, 2026, and July 21, 2026, authorizing entry upon property during the administrative phase[.]” We questioned whether our appellate jurisdiction had been properly invoked and requested responses from the parties.

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Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 51.014(a)(8) permits an accelerated appeal from an interlocutory order that “grants or denies a plea to the jurisdiction by a governmental unit as that term is defined in Section 101.001.” That subsection cannot authorize the accelerated appeal here, where a person filed a plea to the jurisdiction against a governmental unit. See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Ann. § 51.014(a)(8).

Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 51.014(a)(7) permits an accelerated appeal from an interlocutory order that “grants or denies the special appearance of a defendant under Rule 120a, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, except in a suit brought under the Family Code.” Id. 51.014(a)(7). Rule 120a provides for a special appearance “by any party either in person or by attorney for the purpose of objecting to the jurisdiction of the court over the person or property of the defendant on the ground that such party or property is not amenable to process issued by the courts of this State.” See Tex. R. Civ. P. 120a (emphasis added). AMJ did not file a special appearance on the ground that it is not amenable to process in the courts of the State of Texas.

Appellant has not shown that the trial court signed an order that denies the special appearance of a defendant under Rule 120a or denies a plea to the jurisdiction

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by a governmental unit. Accordingly, we dismiss the accelerated appeal for lack of

jurisdiction. 1 See Tex. R. App. P. 42.3(a); 43.2(f).

0F

APPEAL DISMISSED.

PER CURIAM

Submitted on August 26, 2026 Opinion Delivered August 27, 2026

Before Golemon, C.J., Wright and Chambers, JJ.

Appellant also filed a petition for a writ of mandamus which the Clerk of the 1

Court docketed as Number 09-26-00301-CV In re Angel Mid-Jeff Joint Venture LLP.