John Randall Scott and Kristin Scott v. Junior Porperties, LLC

Opinion

Opinion issued July 14, 2026

In The

Court of Appeals For The

First District of Texas ———————————— NO. 01-26-00202-CV ——————————— JOHN RANDALL SCOTT AND KRISTIN SCOTT, Appellants V. JUNIOR PROPERTIES, LLC, Appellee

On Appeal from the County Court at Law No. 1 Fort Bend County, Texas Trial Court Case No. 25-CCV-077848

MEMORANDUM OPINION

The only issue in a forcible-detainer action is the right to actual possession of

the subject property and “the merits of title shall not be adjudicated.” Wilhelm v.

Fed. Nat. Mortg. Ass’n, 349 S.W.3d 766, 768 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.]

2011, no pet.). A forcible-detainer appeal therefore becomes moot if the appellant is no longer in possession of the property, unless the appellant holds and asserts “a

potentially meritorious claim of right to current, actual possession” of the property.

Marshall v. Housing Auth. of the City of San Antonio, 198 S.W.3d 782, 786–87 (Tex.

2006).

The record here contains an executed writ of possession indicating that

appellants no longer possess the disputed property. This Court issued a letter

informing appellants that the record indicated that the appeal is moot because

appellee now has possession of the subject property. We requested that appellants

file a response to whether the appeal was moot. Appellants did not respond, and

therefore, have failed to assert a potentially meritorious claim of right to current,

actual possession of the property. See Soza v. Fed. Home Loan Mortg. Corp., No.

01-11-00568-CV, 2013 WL 3148616, at *1 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] June

18, 2013, no pet.) (mem. op.).

Accordingly, we vacate the trial court’s order granting possession and dismiss

the appeal as moot. See Bey v. ASD Fin., Inc., No. 05-14-00534-CV, 2014 WL

4180933, at *1 (Tex. App.—Dallas Aug. 11, 2014, no pet.) (mem. op.) (dismissing

appeal of forcible detainer action as moot because appellant no longer possessed

property at issue); see also Marshall, 198 S.W.3d at 785 (holding that when appeal

of forcible detainer action becomes moot, proper course is to dismiss appeal and

2 vacate lower court’s judgment of possession); TEX. R. APP. P. 42.3(a). We dismiss

all other pending motions as moot.

Panel consists of Chief Justice Adams and Justice Rivas-Molloy and Guiney.