Jaedicke, Robert K. v. Lopez, Alicia

• Court: Court of Appeals of Texas
• Decided: March 23, 2000
• Docket: 13-99-00621-CV
• Status: Published

Opinion

NUMBER 13-99-621-CV

COURT OF APPEALS

THIRTEENTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS

CORPUS CHRISTI

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ROBERT K. JAEDICKE, ET AL., Appellants,

v.

ALICIA LOPEZ, ET AL., Appellees.

___________________________________________________________________

On appeal from the 332nd District Court

of Hidalgo County, Texas.

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O P I N I O N

Before Chief Justice Seerden and Justices Hinojosa and Yañez

Opinion by Chief Justice Seerden

Appellants brought the present interlocutory appeal from the trial court's order overruling their special appearance. See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Ann. 51.014(a)(7) (Vernon Supp. 2000). However, appellees, who are the plaintiffs below, have now filed notice of nonsuit as to all of their claims against the appellants and have thus mooted the question of personal jurisdiction.

Therefore, appellees move this Court to dismiss the appeal as moot. Appellants agree that the appeal should be dismissed, but also request that the trial court's order be vacated, the case below dismissed as to them, and that appellate costs be awarded to them.

A nonsuit is effective at the time it is filed and the subsequent signing of an order by the trial court granting dismissal is purely ministerial. Greenberg v. Brookshire, 640 S.W.2d 870, 872 (Tex. 1982); In re R.G., 865 S.W.2d 504, 508 (Tex. App.--Corpus Christi 1993, no writ). A nonsuit may thus have the effect of vitiating earlier interlocutory orders and generally of precluding further action by the trial court. See In re Bennett, 960 S.W.2d 35, 38 (Tex. 1997); Hyundai Motor Co. v. Alvarado, 892 S.W.2d 853, 854-55 (Tex. 1995).

Accordingly, we need not vacate the trial court's order or dismiss the underlying cause of action in the present case, since the nonsuit itself concludes the lawsuit as to the appellants and vitiates the complained-of order. However, we do exercise our discretion under Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 43.4 to assess costs of appeal against the appellees.

We grant appellees' motion and DISMISS the present appeal as moot.

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ROBERT J. SEERDEN, Chief Justice

Do not publish.

Tex. R. App. P. 47.3.

Opinion delivered and filed

this 23rd day of March, 2000.