Texas Department of Criminal Justice v. Darrell Hall

• Court: Texas Court of Appeals, 1st District (Houston)
• Decided: December 31, 2025
• Docket: 01-24-00606-CV
• Status: Published

Opinion

Opinion issued December 31, 2025

In The

Court of Appeals For The

First District of Texas ———————————— NO. 01-24-00606-CV ——————————— TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE, Appellant V. DARRELL HALL, Appellee

On Appeal from the 400th District Court Fort Bend County, Texas Trial Court Case No. 18-DCV-254831

MEMORANDUM OPINION

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (“TDCJ”) appeals an order

denying its plea to the jurisdiction. However, an associate judge of the district

court signed the order denying TDCJ’s plea, and the record does not reflect that the

district court ever signed the order. Under Texas law, “[a]n associate judge’s judgment is not appealable until

the referring court signs it.” Lindsey v. Money Source, Inc., No. 01-25-00021-CV,

2025 WL 3028894, at *1 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] Oct. 30, 2025, no pet.

h.) (mem. op.) (“[T]he date an order or judgment by the referring court is signed is

the controlling date for the purposes of appeal to or request for other relief from a

court of appeals or the supreme court.” (citing TEX. GOV’T CODE § 54A.116(b));

Rodriguez v. Slagle, No. 05-23-00547-CV, 2023 WL 6936912, at *1 (Tex. App.—

Dallas Oct. 20, 2023, pet. dism’d w.o.j.) (mem. op.) (dismissing appeal because

“an associate judge’s judgment is not appealable until signed by the referring

court”).

Accordingly, on December 11, 2025, we requested a written response from

the parties explaining why we have jurisdiction over this appeal, to be filed within

ten days of the request. We stated that after expiration of the ten-day period, “the

appeal may be dismissed for want of jurisdiction without further notice.” Neither

party filed a response. However, the current district court judge (who was not in

office at the time the associate judge issued the denial order or when this appeal

was filed) filed a letter with our Court expressing that the predecessor district court

judge did not sign the associate judge’s denial order, meaning we lack jurisdiction

over this appeal. We agree.

2 Because the record does not contain a final judgment signed by the referring

court, and because neither party responded to our request, we dismiss this appeal

for want of jurisdiction. See TEX. GOV’T CODE § 54A.116; TEX. R. APP. P. 42.3(a),

42.3(c).

PER CURIAM

Panel consists of Justices Guerra, Guiney, and Johnson.