## In the Court of Appeals Second Appellate District o f Texas

at Fort Worth

__________________________ _ No. 02

- 20

- 001 82

- CV

___________________________

On Appeal from County Court at Law No. 2

Denton County, Texas Trial Court No. CV

- 2020

- 00263

- JP
Before Gabriel, Kerr, and Birdwell, JJ. Memorandum Opinion by Justice Gabriel 

### T HOMAS 

### S ATTERTHWAITE 

### J R


### . AND 

### J ESSICA 

### S HAW 

### , Appellants

V


### . F IRST 

### B ANK D 

### / B 

### / A 

### F IRST 

### B ANK 

### M ORTGAGE AND I TS 

### S UCCESSORS AND 

### A SSIGNS 

### , Appellee2 MEMORAND UM OPINION A pp el lants Thomas Satterthwaite Jr. and Jes sica Shaw atte mpt to appeal from the county court ’ s judgment of possession , which was signed on March 16, 2020. Because Appellant s did not tim ely fi le their notice of appeal, we di s miss their appeal fo r want of juris di ction

. A ppellee First Bank fi led a forcible

- detainer action against Appella nts , asserting a superior right to posses si on to a ho me in Frisco. See Tex. Prop. Code Ann. § 24.002. On Mar ch 16, 2020, t he tri al court signed a jud gment of posses si on , f in di ng Appellants “ guilty of F orcible D etainer ” and order ing that Fir st Bank have possession of the property. The trial court also orde red Appellants evi cted from the propert y and set a n “ appeal bond ” in the am ount of “ $2, 750.00 per mont h due on the 1st day of the month. ” See id. § § 24.0061, 24.007; Tex. R. Civ. P. 510.13. Appellants filed a notice of appeal from the judgment of possess ion on June 16, 2020

— 92 days af ter the judgment had be en signed

. On July 2, we notified Ap pellants that because no post

- judgment motion had been filed, th e notice of appeal had been due no later than April 15; thus, we questioned our jurisdiction over App ellants ’ attempted appea l

. See Tex. R. App. P. 26.1 , 42.3 (a) . We warned Appellants that w e could dismiss their appeal if they did not

r espond showing grounds f or our jurisdiction. See Tex. R. App. P. 44.3. Appellants responded and asse rted that on June 5

— 81 days after the jud gment of possession h ad been signed

— they had fi le d an “ emergency motion on the wr it of possession ” and3

that the trial court had ruled that they “ had u ntil June 15, 2 020 at 5:00 p.m. to pro vide document ation showing the perfection of an appeal. ” App ella nts contend th at the y believed this acted as an ext ension of the a pp ellate deadline

. An extension of time to file a notice of appeal may only be granted by this
court, not the county court , and must be sought with in 45 days of the d ate of the jud gment if no t

imely post

- judgment motion is filed

. See Tex. R. App

. P. 3.1(b), 26.1(a), 26.3 ; In re J.A. , 53 S.W.3d 869, 872 (Tex. App.

— Dallas 2001, no pet.)

. See generally Verburgt v. Dorner , 959 S.W.2d 615, 617 (Tex. 1997) ( “ [O]nce the per iod for grant i ng a motio n f

or extension of time under Rule [26.3] has pas sed, a party ca n no longer invoke the appellate court ’ s jurisdiction. ” ). Even if Appellants ’ emerg ency

mo tion regarding th e writ of possession w ere considered to be a post

- judgment

m otion , it was filed more th an 30 day s after the trial court signed the ju dgment of
posse ss ion ; thus, the emergency motion did not operate to extend the notice

- of

appe al deadline. See Tex. R . App. P. 26.1(a); Tex. R. Civ. P. 329b(a)

. Accordingly, Appellan ts did not fil e an effectiv e post

- judgment m otion, extending the appellat e deadline , nor d id they file their notice of appeal or an equivalent filing within 30 days of the trial court ’ s judgment of possession. Absent these actions, we do not have jurisdic tion over Appe llants ’ appea l and we dismiss it

. 1 See Tex. R. App. P. 43.2 (f) ;

1 W e recognize that the T e xas Sup reme Court has issued an emergency order re garding the COVID

- 19 state of disaster that extends filing an d service deadlines falling between March 13, 2020, and June 1, 2020. However, this order specifies that the extension “ d o es not i nclude deadlines fo r perfecting appeal. ” Tex. Sup. Ct. , Misc.4

Webb

- Goodw

in v. Trails of White Rock , No. 05

- 18

- 00145

- CV, 2018 WL 1281305, at *1 (Tex. App.

— Dallas Mar. 13, 2018, no pet.) (mem. op.).
/s/ Lee Gabriel Lee Gabriel Justice Delivered: July 30 , 2020

Docket No. 20

- 9059 (Apr. 27, 20 20); see also Tex. Sup. Ct., Misc. Docket No. 20

- 9071 (May 26, 2020) (renewing April 27, 2020 emergency order regarding extensions).