Steve Otos v. Chuck Brehm, Ed Beck, Tobin Center Hotel, LLC

• Court: Court of Appeals of Texas
• Decided: April 3, 2025
• Docket: 07-23-00285-CV
• Status: Published

Opinion

In The Court of Appeals Seventh District of Texas at Amarillo

No. 07-23-00285-CV

STEVE OTOS, APPELLANT

V.

CHUCK BREHM, ED BECK, AND TOBIN CENTER HOTEL, LLC, APPELLEES

On Appeal from the 166th District Court Bexar County, Texas Trial Court No. 2019-CI-20398, Honorable Laura Salinas, Presiding

April 3, 2025 MEMORANDUM OPINION Before QUINN, C.J., and DOSS and YARBROUGH, JJ.

Appellant, Steve Otos, appeals from the trial court’s Final Judgment.1 We dismiss

the appeal for want of prosecution due to Otos’s failure to pay for the clerk’s record.

Otos filed a statement of inability to afford payment of court costs in the trial court

prior to the appeal. See TEX. R. CIV. P. 145. Upon his request for preparation of a free

1 Originally appealed to the Fourth Court of Appeals, this appeal was transferred to this Court by

the Texas Supreme Court pursuant to its docket equalization efforts. See TEX. GOV’T CODE ANN. § 73.001. appellate record, both the court reporter and Appellees challenged his claim of indigency.

We remanded the cause to the trial court on September 20, 2023, to determine whether

Otos could afford costs for preparation of the appellate record. Otos v. Brehm, No. 07-

23-00285-CV, 2023 Tex. App. LEXIS 7295, at *1 (Tex. App.—Amarillo Sept. 20, 2023,

order) (per curiam). On remand, the trial court found that Otos failed to demonstrate his

inability to afford payment of costs and denied his request for a free record on appeal.

See TEX. R. CIV. P. 145(f). Otos appealed the trial court’s decision to this Court, but we

affirmed the order. Otos v. Brehm, No. 07-23-00285-CV, 2024 Tex. App. LEXIS 7663, at

*5 (Tex. App.—Amarillo Oct. 22, 2024, order) (per curiam). Otos further appealed to the

Supreme Court of Texas which later denied his petition for review on February 28, 2025.

By letter of March 11, 2025, we directed Otos to pay for the clerk’s record by March

21 and admonished him that failure to do so by this deadline would result in dismissal of

the appeal for want of prosecution. See TEX. R. APP. P. 35.3(a), 37.3(b). To date, Otos

has not made payment arrangements for the clerk’s record, filed a response addressing

the omission, or submitted a notice electing to file an appendix in lieu of a clerk’s record

pursuant to Rule of Appellate Procedure 34.5a.

Consequently, we dismiss the appeal for want of prosecution. See TEX. R. APP. P.

37.3(b), 42.3(b).

Per Curiam