Marlene J. Sarres and Gerson Sosa v. Michael C. Howard and Chris Diferrante

Opinion

Opinion issued May 20, 2025

In The

Court of Appeals For The

First District of Texas ———————————— NO. 01-24-00984-CV ——————————— MARLENE J. SARRES AND GERSON SOSA, Appellants V. MICHAEL C. HOWARD AND CHRIS DIFERRANTE, Appellees

On Appeal from the County Civil Court at Law No. 2 Harris County, Texas Trial Court Case No. 1238172

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Appellants Marlene J. Sarres and Gerson Sosa have appealed from a final

judgment awarding possession of certain property to appellees Michael C. Howard

and Chris DiFerrante and awarding attorney’s fees. Appellees filed a motion to dismiss, asserting that appellants have not paid the filing fee, failed to file a complete

appellate record, and failed to file a docketing statement.1

In this case, appellants have neither paid the required filing fee nor established

indigence for purposes of appellate costs. See TEX. R. APP. P. 5, 20.1; see also TEX.

GOV’T CODE ANN. §§ 51.207, 51.208, 51.941(a), 101.041; Order Regarding Fees

Charged in the Supreme Court, in Civil Cases in the Courts of Appeals, and Before

the Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation, Misc. Docket No. 15-9158.

Appellants failed to respond to the Court’s notice of January 7, 2025 stating that,

should appellant not pay the fee, the appeal was subject to dismissal. See TEX. R.

APP. P. 5 (allowing enforcement of rule); 42.3(c) (allowing involuntary dismissal of

case). Accordingly, we grant appellees’ motion to dismiss on the ground that

appellants have not paid the filing fee after notice.

We dismiss the appeal. See TEX. R. APP. P. 42.3(c), 43.2(f). We dismiss any

other pending motions as moot.

Panel consists of Justices Guerra, Gunn, and Dokupil.

1 Appellants filed a clerk’s record but failed to file a reporter’s record. The Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure do not provide for dismissal of an appeal for failure to file a reporter’s record or a docketing statement.