## In the Court of Appeals Secon d Appellate District of Texas at Fort Worth

_________ __________________ No. 02

- 20

- 00198

- CV

___________________________

On Appeal from County Court at Law No. 1 Tarrant County, Texas Trial Court No. 2019

- 008429

- 1

Before Kerr, Birdwell, and Bassel, JJ. Memorandum Opinion by Ju stice Kerr 

### A UDREY 

### J ONES 

### , Appellant

V


### . J OAN 

### E. W HITE 

### , Appell ee2 MEMORANDUM OPINION
Pro se appella nt Audrey Jones attempt s to appeal from the tr ial court ’ s April 2,
2020 f inal judgmen t in appellee Joan E. White ’ s favor after a bench trial at which Jones fail ed to appear. Because no pos t judgment motion was fi led to ext en d the

not ice

- of

- appeal filing dea dline , J o nes ’ s notice of appeal was due May 4, 2020, but it
was not filed until June 11, 20 20 , making it unt imely. S ee Tex. R. App. P. 4.1(a), 26.1.
We no tified t h e pa rties of our concern that we lack juri sd icti on over this appeal
because Jones ’ s notice of appeal was untimely filed

. 1 See Tex. R. App. P. 26.1

. We
warned that we could di smiss this appeal a bse nt a response showing grounds for continuing i t
. Se e Tex. R. App. P. 42.3(a), 4 4.3. Jones h as responded.
In her response, Jone s claims that she did no t tim el y receive the trial court ’ s hearing notice because i t was cau ght by her email inbox ’ s spa m filter. Jones

— a ha irstylist by trade

— im p lies that because of the cu rrent C OVID

- 19 pa ndem ic, she

was ta sked with bei n g a “ teacher, counselor, [and] p reacher ” to her three school

- a ge children . As a result, her “ life was prett y out of order , ” “ she was focused on the
situations that we are fac ing , ” and “ [l]ife is not normal

. ” She asks us to allow her t o appeal the jud gmen t because she d oes not have or owe White anything.
The time for f iling a notice of appeal is jurisdictional in this court, an d ab sent a timely filed notice of appeal or a t im el y filed e xtension request , we must dismis s th e

1 Our letter mistakenly stated that the notice of appeal was due May 1, 2020.3 appeal. See Tex. R. App. P. 2, 25.1 (b), 26.1, 26.3 ; Jones v. City of Housto n , 976 S.W.2d 676, 677 (Tex. 1998); Verburgt v. Dorne r , 959 S.W.2d 615, 617 (Tex. 1 997)

. During this pandemic, the Texas Supreme Court has given us the discretion to “ mo dify or

sus pend any and all deadlines and proce dures, whether prescribed by statute, rule, or
order

. ” Supr em e Court of Tex. , Twenty

- Second E mergency Order Regarding the
COVID

- 1 9 State of Dis aster , Misc. Dkt. No. 20

- 9 09 5 ( Aug. 6, 20 20 ). But the fact of
the pandemi c, standing alon e, is not a reasonable e xplanation for a missed appella te deadline. Here, Jone s ’ s notice of appeal was untimely filed , and she did not tim ely move
for an e xt en sion of time to file it

. See Tex. R. A pp. P. 26.1, 26. 3

. Jones does not claim
in her response that she did not receive ti mely notice of the trial court ’ s judgment (as opposed to notice of the hearing) or that she did not have actual knowledge of the ju dg ment ’ s signing

. See Tex. R. App. P. 4.2 ( a)(1). But e ven if she did make either
argument , she made no effort to comply w i th Rule 306a(5) of the Texas Ru les of Civil
Procedure. See Tex. R. App. P. 4.2 (b) ; Tex. R. Civ . P. 306a (5)

. Nor do es she claim that
the pandemic or its effec ts pre vented h er from timely fil ing her notice of appeal or

t imely moving for a n e xtension of t ime to do so

. We thus di smiss this appeal for want
of jurisdiction. 2 See Tex. R. App. P. 42.3(a), 43.2(f).

2 While a notic e of app eal in a restricted appeal may be filed wit hin s ix months
a fter the judgment is signed, see Tex. R. App. P. 26.1(c) , Jone s ’ s notice of appeal does not contain the information re quired for a restricted appeal , see Tex. R . App. P. 25.1(d)(7). See gen erall y T ex. R. App. P. 30 ( “ A party who did not par ticipate

— eithe r in4 /s/ Elizabeth Kerr Eli zab eth Kerr Justic e Delivered: September 24, 2020

person or through counsel

— in the hearing that resulted in th e j udgment complained of and who did not timely file a postjudgment motion or re quest for findings of fact and conclusions of law, or a notice of appeal within the time permitte d by Rule 26.1 (a ), may file a notice of appeal within the time permitted by Rul e 2 6.1(c)

. ” ). We express no opinion whether J ones would prevail on a restricted appeal were she to file
one within the applicable time period. See Tex. R. App. P. 26.1(c) , 26.3.