In the Interest of H.P., a Child v. the State of Texas

Opinion

In The Court of Appeals Seventh District of Texas at Amarillo

No. 07-23-00018-CV

IN THE INTEREST OF H.P., A CHILD

On Appeal from the 140th District Court Lubbock County, Texas Trial Court No. 2021-544,580, Honorable Kelley Tesch, Associate Judge Presiding

February 16, 2023 MEMORANDUM OPINION Before QUINN, C.J., and PARKER and DOSS, JJ.

Appellant, S.S., attempts to appeal the associate judge’s order terminating her

parental rights to H.P., a child.1 The associate judge signed the “report and order” on

January 23, 2023. A day later, S.S. filed a “Notice of Appeal From Associate Judge’s

Ruling and Request for De Novo Trial.” Although the title of the document includes

“Notice of Appeal,” it only requests a de novo hearing before the referring court.

1 To protect the privacy of the parties involved, we refer to them by their initials. See TEX. FAM. CODE ANN. § 109.002(d); TEX. R. APP. P. 9.8(b)(2). Generally, appellate courts only have jurisdiction over final judgments. Lehmann

v. Har-Con Corp., 39 S.W.3d 191, 195 (Tex. 2001); see also See TEX. FAM. CODE ANN.

§ 109.002(b) (permitting appeals from final orders). Because S.S. filed a request for de

novo review within three working days of the associate judge’s order, the order is not a

final order. See TEX. FAM. CODE ANN. §§ 201.007(14), (16) (concerning finality of

associate judge orders); 201.015 (permitting de novo hearings before referring court),

201.016(b) (identifying controlling date for purposes of appeal); 201.2041(a) (concerning

associate judge orders in child protection cases); 201.2042 (permitting de novo hearings

before referring court in child protection cases). And, we have found no statutory authority

granting an immediate appeal from such an interlocutory order. See Stary v. DeBord,

967 S.W.2d 352, 352–53 (Tex. 1998) (per curiam) (“Appellate courts have jurisdiction to

consider immediate appeals from interlocutory orders only if a statute explicitly provides

appellate jurisdiction.”).

By letter of January 26, 2023, we notified S.S. that it did not appear we had

jurisdiction over the appeal. We directed her to show grounds for continuing the appeal

by February 6, 2023, or we would dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction. S.S. did not

respond to our letter and has had no further communication with this Court to date.

Because there is no final order in this case, we dismiss the appeal for want of

jurisdiction. See TEX. R. APP. P. 42.3(a)

Per Curiam