In Re Walter Cortez, Relator v. the State of Texas

• Court: Court of Appeals of Texas
• Decided: March 21, 2024
• Docket: 07-24-00096-CR
• Status: Published

Opinion

In The Court of Appeals Seventh District of Texas at Amarillo

No. 07-24-00096-CR

IN RE WALTER CORTEZ, RELATOR

ORIGINAL PROCEEDING

March 21, 2024 MEMORANDUM OPINION Before QUINN, C.J., and PARKER and YARBROUGH, JJ.

Walter Cortez, Relator, seeks a writ of mandamus directing the 432nd District

Court to provide him with “a free copy of [his] documents in reference to [his] case.” As

we are without authority to issue a mandamus against the respondent, we dismiss the

petition for want of jurisdiction.

A court of appeals may issue writs of mandamus against a judge of a district or

county court in its geographic district and may issue writs necessary to enforce its

jurisdiction. TEX. GOV’T CODE ANN. § 22.221(a), (b). Relator has directed his mandamus

petition against the judge of the 432nd District Court of Tarrant County, which is not

located within the geographic district for the Seventh Court of Appeals. See TEX. GOV’T CODE ANN. § 22.201(h) (identifying counties composing Seventh Court of Appeals

District). Although the appeal of Relator’s underlying case was transferred to this Court,

the transfer did not carry with it any jurisdiction to issue a writ of mandamus in a separate

original proceeding. See In re Foster, No. 07-20-00190-CV, 2020 Tex. App. LEXIS 6257,

at *2 (Tex. App.—Amarillo Aug. 7, 2020, orig. proceeding) (per curiam) (mem. op.).

Accordingly, we are without authority to issue a writ of mandamus against the

judge of the 432nd District Court unless the writ is necessary to enforce our jurisdiction.

See TEX. GOV’T CODE ANN. § 22.221(a). Relator has not demonstrated that our jurisdiction

is implicated here. Therefore, we dismiss Relator’s petition for writ of mandamus for want

of jurisdiction.

Per Curiam

Do not publish.