Linda Morgan v. Jorge Rodriguez Alliance Reconstruction

• Court: Court of Appeals of Texas
• Decided: January 26, 2023
• Docket: 02-22-00461-CV
• Status: Published

Opinion

In the Court of Appeals Second Appellate District of Texas at Fort Worth ___________________________ No. 02-22-00461-CV ___________________________

LINDA MORGAN, Appellant

V.

JORGE RODRIGUEZ AND ALLIANCE RECONSTRUCTION, Appellees

On Appeal from County Court at Law No. 1 Tarrant County, Texas Trial Court No. 2019-006219-1

Before Kerr, Birdwell, and Bassel, JJ. Memorandum Opinion by Justice Kerr MEMORANDUM OPINION

On May 11, 2022, the trial court signed an order dismissing for want of

prosecution Appellant Linda Morgan’s suit against Appellees Jorge Rodriguez and

Alliance Reconstruction. See Tex. R. Civ. P. 165a. Because Morgan failed to timely file

a postjudgment motion to extend the appellate deadline, her notice of appeal was due

June 10, 2022. See Tex. R. App. P. 26.1; Tex. R. Civ. P. 165a.3. But Morgan did not

file her notice of appeal until November 21, 2022, making it untimely. See Tex. R.

App. P. 26.1.

The time for filing a notice of appeal is jurisdictional in this court, and without

a timely filed notice of appeal or a timely filed extension request, we must dismiss the

appeal. See Tex. R. App. P. 2, 25.1(b), 26.1, 26.3; Jones v. City of Houston, 976 S.W.2d

676, 677 (Tex. 1998); Verburgt v. Dorner, 959 S.W.2d 615, 617 (Tex. 1997). We thus

wrote to Morgan on November 28, 2022, expressing our concern that we lacked

jurisdiction over this appeal because it appeared that her notice of appeal was

untimely filed and warned that we could dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction.

See Tex. R. App. P. 26.1, 42.3(a), 43.2(f).

We received no response but later realized that our letter may have caused

confusion because it stated the incorrect notice-of-appeal filing deadline. So we wrote

to Morgan again on December 22, 2022. This time, we stated the correct notice-of-

appeal filing deadline and again pointed out that it appeared that her notice of appeal

was untimely.

2 In that same letter, we also pointed out that in a restricted appeal, the notice of

appeal must be filed within six months after the judgment or order is signed. See Tex.

R. App. P. 26.1(c). We stated that if Morgan intended to pursue a restricted appeal,

she must do the following:

• File an amended notice of appeal in the trial court containing the information required for a restricted appeal and file, with us, a copy of the amended notice of appeal, see Tex. R. App. P. 25.1(d), (e), (g), 37.l, and

• File with us a response—verified, if necessary—showing a reasonable explanation for the late filing of the notice of restricted appeal,1 see Tex. R. App. P. 10.2, 10.5(b), 26.3(b).

We warned Morgan that if she failed to complete these steps within ten days or

that if we determined that her appeal was not timely perfected, we would dismiss her

appeal for want of jurisdiction. See Tex. R. App. P. 42.3(a), 43.2(f). Ten days have

passed, and Morgan has failed to take the requested actions. Accordingly, we dismiss

this appeal for want of jurisdiction. See Tex. R. App. P. 42.3(a), 43.2(f).

/s/ Elizabeth Kerr Elizabeth Kerr Justice

Delivered: January 26, 2023

Morgan’s notice of appeal was filed after the six-month restricted-appeal filing 1

deadline but within the 15-day period in which we infer a motion to extend the filing deadline. See Tex. R. App. P. 26.1(c), 26.3; Jones, 976 S.W.2d at 677; Verburgt, 959 S.W.2d at 617.