Ken Bigham and Tracy Hollister v. Southeast Texas Environmental LLC

• Court: Court of Appeals of Texas
• Decided: July 19, 2016
• Docket: 14-16-00482-CV
• Status: Published

Opinion

Order filed July 19, 2016

In The

Fourteenth Court of Appeals ____________

NO. 14-16-00482-CV ____________

KEN BIGHAM AND TRACY HOLLISTER, Appellants

V.

SOUTHEAST TEXAS ENVIRONMENTAL LLC, ET AL, Appellees

On Appeal from the 80th District Court Harris County, Texas Trial Court Cause No. 2007-55020

ORDER

This is an appeal from a judgment signed March 15, 2016. Appellants timely filed a post-judgment motion. The notice of appeal was due June 13, 2016. See Tex. R. App. P. 26.1. Appellants, however, filed their notice of appeal on June 14, 2016, a date within 15 days of the due date for the notice of appeal. A motion for extension of time is necessarily implied when the perfecting instrument is filed within 15 days of its due date. Verburgt v. Dorner, 959 S.W.2d 615, 617 (Tex. 1997). Appellants did not file a motion to extend time to file the notice of appeal. While an extension may be implied, appellants are still obligated to come forward with a reasonable explanation to support the late filing. See Miller v. Greenpark Surgery Center Assocs., Ltd., 974 S.W.2d 805, 808 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1998, no pet.). Accordingly, we ORDER appellants to file a proper motion to extend time to file the notice of appeal on or before July 29, 2016. See Tex. R. App. P. 26.3; 10.5(b). If appellants do not comply with this order, we will dismiss the appeal. See Tex. R. App. P. 42.3.

PER CURIAM