Melanie Fletcher v. Larry Branch

• Court: Texas Court of Appeals, 2nd District (Fort Worth)
• Decided: June 25, 2026
• Docket: 02-26-00201-CV
• Status: Published

Opinion

In the Court of Appeals Second Appellate District of Texas at Fort Worth ___________________________ No. 02-26-00201-CV ___________________________

MELANIE FLETCHER, Appellant

V.

LARRY BRANCH, Appellee

On Appeal from County Court at Law No. 1 Tarrant County, Texas Trial Court No. 2026-002184-1

Before Sudderth, C.J.; Kerr and Birdwell, JJ. Memorandum Opinion by Chief Justice Sudderth MEMORANDUM OPINION

When a “trial court clerk fail[s] to file the clerk’s record because the appellant

[has] failed to pay or make arrangements to pay the clerk’s fee . . . , the appellate court

may—on . . . its own initiative—dismiss the appeal for want of prosecution.”1 Tex. R.

App. P. 37.3(b). And here, the trial court clerk has not filed the clerk’s record because

Fletcher has failed to pay the clerk’s fee.

We notified Fletcher of this issue and warned her that we would dismiss her

appeal for want of prosecution unless she made payment arrangements for the clerk’s

record and provided us with proof of payment within ten days—by June 8, 2026. See

Tex. R. App. P. 37.3(b) (authorizing dismissal for nonpayment but stating that the

appellate court “must give the appellant a reasonable opportunity to cure”), 44.3

(providing that court must not dispose of an appeal for formal defects “without

allowing a reasonable time to correct” the defects). Fletcher responded by insisting

that she had, months earlier, “tendered [to the trial court clerk a] silver surety bond

certificate for required tendered payments.” However, there is no indication that the

trial court clerk agreed to accept a “silver surety bond certificate” as a form of

payment. To the contrary, the trial court clerk has informed us that she has billed

Fletcher and still has not been paid “by cash or credit card.” See Lynn v. Ferguson, No.

This rule does not apply if “the appellant [i]s entitled to proceed without 1

payment of costs.” Tex. R. App. P. 37.3(b). But there is no indication that Appellant Melanie Fletcher is entitled to proceed without payment of costs.

2 02-25-00619-CV, 2026 WL 1365091, at *1 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth May 14, 2026,

pet. denied) (per curiam) (mem. op.) (holding that the appellant had not paid for the

clerk’s record when he claimed the clerk “had wrongfully rejected a money order” but

the clerk confirmed that the money order was not signed and that the appellant had

not provided other valid payment). And Fletcher’s June 8 deadline for correcting this

issue has come and gone. See Tex. R. App. P. 37.3(b), 44.3.

Because Fletcher has not paid for the clerk’s record, we dismiss her appeal for

want of prosecution. See Tex. R. App. P. 37.3(b), 42.3(b), 43.2(f); Lynn, 2026 WL

1365091, at *1. Her pending motions are denied.

/s/ Bonnie Sudderth

Bonnie Sudderth Chief Justice

Delivered: June 25, 2026