Charles Holt, Mike Dixon, Tim Nations, and Leonel Acevedo v. Texas Department of Insurance-Division of Workers' Compensation and Commissioner Ryan Brannan, in His Official Capacity as DWC Commissioner The State of Texas Through the Honorable Ken Paxton, in His Official Capacity as Attorney General of Texas

• Court: Court of Appeals of Texas
• Decided: January 2, 2018
• Docket: 03-17-00758-CV
• Status: Published

Opinion

ACCEPTED 03-17-00758-CV 21563519 THIRD COURT OF APPEALS AUSTIN, TEXAS 1/2/2018 4:55 PM JEFFREY D. KYLE CLERK

No. 03-17-00758-CV FILED IN IN THE 3RD COURT OF APPEALS 3rd COURT OF APPEALS AUSTIN, TEXAS AUSTIN, TEXAS 1/2/2018 4:55:59 PM JEFFREY D. KYLE Clerk

Charles Holt, Tim Nations, Mike Dixon & Leonel Acevedo, Appellants

V.

Texas Department of Insurance-Division of Workers’ Compensation and Commissioner Ryan Brannan, in his official capacity; the State of Texas by and through the Attorney General of Texas Ken Paxton, in his official capacity, and the City of Austin, Appellees

On appeal from the 53rd District Court of Travis County, Texas; Cause No. D-1-GN-16-003000, the Honorable Amy Clark Meachum Presiding

APPELLANTS’ UNOPPOSED MOTION TO EXTEND TIME TO FILE APPELLANTS’ BRIEF

TO THE HONORABLE JUSTICES OF THE THIRD COURT OF APPEALS:

Appellants, Charles Holt, Tim Nations, Mike Dixon & Leonel Acevedo,

respectfully ask this Honorable Court to extend the time to file Appellants’ Brief by

30 days.

A. Introduction

1 Case No. 03-17-00758-CV Appellants’ Motion to Extend Time to File Appellants’ Brief 1. The Appellants, Charles Holt, Tim Nations, Mike Dixon & Leonel Acevedo, are

injured Texas workers under the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act.

2. The interlocutory Appellees are the Texas Department of Insurance-Division of

Workers' Compensation and Commissioner Ryan Brannan, in his official capacity,

and are the state agency and head of the agency and collectively referred to as TDI-

DWC; the State of Texas by and through the Attorney General of Texas Ken Paxton,

in his official capacity, and the City of Austin, a self-insured governmental entity

acting as a workers’ compensation insurance carrier in this matter.

3. This is an interlocutory appeal of the granting of governmental entities pleas to

the jurisdiction.

4. Th current deadline for Appellants’ Brief is January 4, 2018.

5. This motion is filed on January 2, 2018, within the time to file a brief as

required by Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure including Rule 38.6.

6. Appellants seek an additional 30 days to file the Appellants’ Brief extending

the deadline until Saturday, February 3, 2018, which would extend the deadline to

the following Monday, February 5, 2018.

7. Lead counsel for interlocutory Appellees, TDI-DWC, the State of Texas and

the City of Austin are unopposed to this motion.

B. Argument & Authorities 2 Case No. 03-17-00758-CV Appellants’ Motion to Extend Time to File Appellants’ Brief 8. This Court has authority under the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure

including Rule 38.6 to grant Appellants additional time to file Appellants’ Brief.

9. Appellants request an additional 30 days from to file the Appellants’ Brief,

extending the time until Monday February 5, 2018, the next business day after

Saturday, February 3, 2018.

10. No prior extensions to extend time to file the Appellants’ Brief have been

granted, and the interlocutory governmental entities are unopposed to this

extension.

11. Appellant needs additional time to file the Appellants’ Brief because:

a. Counsel for Appellant has been involved with other judicial and

administrative proceedings in the last month and continuing into the next.

Appellant’s counsel has also had previously set family and children’s educational

and extracurricular commitments in the last month and extending into this month

including prior holiday family commitments. Appellants’ counsel is of counsel to a

very small law firm, and counsel has had an extremely heavy workload with prior

deadlines and hearings. Among other matters, counsel filed a brief with the 4th

Court of Appeals in Case No. 04-16-00662-CV on December 18, 2017, and counsel

has a brief due with the 10th Court currently in Case No. 10-17-00273-CV on January

8, 2018, but an agreed extension has also been requested in that matter with the 3 Case No. 03-17-00758-CV Appellants’ Motion to Extend Time to File Appellants’ Brief other parties. Counsel also has previously set hearings on January 2nd (in town) and

contested hearings on January 3rd and 4th (both out of town). Appellants’ counsel is

also currently lead counsel of record in District Court matters in Travis County,

Harris County, Williamson County, Edinburgh County, Bexar County, and other

counties.

b. For the reasons contained herein, Appellants are filing this Motion to Extend

Time to File the Appellants’ Brief.

c. To be able to file the succinctly and adequately file the Appellants’ Brief in

this significant workers’ compensation matter an additional 30 days is requested

from the original deadline.

C. Conclusion

This motion to extend time to file Appellants’ Brief is not for the purposes of delay

but for time for adequate and succinct briefing and more time to review the record

in this critical workers’ compensation matter.

D. Prayer

12. For these reasons, Appellants respectfully pray and ask the Court to grant an

extension of time of 30 days, plus two weekend days extending the deadline until

Monday, February 5, 2018, to file the Appellants’ Brief.

4 Case No. 03-17-00758-CV Appellants’ Motion to Extend Time to File Appellants’ Brief Respectfully,

/s/ Brad McClellan Bradley Dean McClellan Of Counsel, Law Offices of Richard Pena, P.C. State Bar No. 13395980 2211 South IH-35, Suite 300 (512) 327-6884 telephone (512) 327-8354 facsimile Brad.McClellan@yahoo.com Attorney for Appellants

CERTIFICATE OF CONFERENCE

I certify that I have conferred with Adrienne Butcher, lead counsel for interlocutory Appellees, TDI-DWC & State of Texas, by email, and Shelly Singh, lead counsel for City of Austin, interlocutory Appellee, and both counsel are unopposed to the Appellants’ Motion to Extend Time to file Appellants’ Brief.

/s/ Brad McClellan Bradley Dean McClellan

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I certify that a copy of the foregoing Appellants’ Motion to Extend Time was served on the through counsel of record by the method indicated below on January 2, 2018:

5 Case No. 03-17-00758-CV Appellants’ Motion to Extend Time to File Appellants’ Brief Adrienne Butcher, Assistant Attorney General Via eservice/email P.O. Box 12548, Capitol Station Austin, Texas 78711 Telephone: (512) 463-1410 Facsimile: (512) 320-0167 adrienne.butcher@oag.texas.gov Attorneys for State Appellees, Interlocutory Appellees.

Shelly Singh Via eservice/email Assistant City Attorney, City of Austin Law Department shelly.singh@austintexas.gov P. O. Box 1546 Austin, Texas 78767-1546 Telephone: (512) 974-2015 Facsimile: (512) 974-1311 Attorneys for City of Austin, Interlocutory Appellees

Vaughan Waters Via eservice/email Dana M. Gannon Thornton, Biechlin, Reynolds & Guerra, L.C. 100 N. E. Loop 410, Suite 500 San Antonio, Texas 78216 Telephone: (210) 342-5555 Facsimile: (210) 525-0666 vwaters@thorntonfirm.com dgannon@thorntonfirm.com Attorneys for Defendant Indemnity Insurance Co. of N.A.,

Darryl J. Silvera Via eservice/email dsilvera@silveralaw.com The Silvera Firm, P.C. 17070 Dallas Parkway, Suite 100 Dallas, Texas 75248 Phone: (972) 715-1750 Fax: (972) 715-1759

6 Case No. 03-17-00758-CV Appellants’ Motion to Extend Time to File Appellants’ Brief Attorney for Defendant Trumbull Insurance

Robert Stokes Via eservice/email Rebecca Strandwitz Flahive, Ogden & Latson P.O. Box 201329 Austin, Texas 78720 512-477-4405 512-241-3300 fax rds@fol.com rms@fol.com Attorneys for Defendant XL Insurance America, Inc.

/s/ Brad McClellan Brad McClellan

7 Case No. 03-17-00758-CV Appellants’ Motion to Extend Time to File Appellants’ Brief