Court Opinion

ID: 9352634
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-01-09 00:17:26.949209+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:58:19.006533
License: Public Domain

Order filed January 6, 2023

                                     In The

                    Fourteenth Court of Appeals
                                 ____________

                              NO. 14-21-00396-CV
                                 ____________

   MARY ARTHUR; JAMES P. ARTHUR; ARTHUR HOLDINGS, L.P.;
      ARTHUR P. HOLDINGS, L.P.; ARTHUR J, HOLDINGS., INC.;
      LEGONITE, INC.; AND PARADISE LIVING, INC., Appellants

                                       V.

         BLACKBURN & BROWN MORTGAGE FUND I, Appellee

                   On Appeal from the 11th District Court
                           Harris County, Texas
                     Trial Court Cause No. 2018-42929

                                  ORDER

      The clerk’s record was filed October 11, 2021, and supplemented once on
May 11, 2022, twice on May 20, 2022, and once again on July 28, 22. Our review
has determined that relevant items have been omitted from the clerk’s record. See
TEX. R. APP. P. 34.5(c). Because the omitted items are drawn from six trial-court
cause numbers, but the information regarding some of the omitted items is limited,
some clarification for the basis of this order may be helpful.

      This is an appeal from a final judgment granting Defendant’s Second
Amended Motion for Final Summary Judgment and Motion for Sanctions in cause
number 2018-42929, into which the trial court had consolidated cause numbers
2019-80239 and 2020-13849. The three cases assigned these cause numbers are
related to alleged breaches of a settlement agreement and an agreed final judgment
filed in cause number 2016-12403, which also was the subject of a case filed under
cause number 2017-56890. Some of the documentary evidence on which the
motions under review rely were filed in one of these related cases, or in another
related case assigned cause number 2016-12403, and some of the documentary
evidence is identified only by the document’s e-filing envelope number and the
cause number in which it was filed.

      Moreover, the trial court states in the judgment under review that it
considered not only the Defendant’s Second Amended Motion for Final Summary
Judgment and Motion for Sanctions and its supporting evidence, which were filed
on January 19, 2021, but also “the Plaintiffs’ responses, supplemental responses
and evidence provided in support of those responses.” The appellate record
contains no responses or supplemental responses to the 2021 motion. In their
appellate brief, plaintiff-appellants James and Mary Arthur cite only to a summary-
judgment response filed in 2019, which raises the question whether that document
was incorporated into a response or supplemental response to the 2021 motion.
which may have been filed under any of the three consolidated cause numbers of
2018-42929, 2019-80239, or 2020-13849. If so, then we can consider that 2019
response—but it relies in part on exhibits filed in support of a 2019 summary-

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judgment motion, and those exhibits also are missing from the record. Finally, it is
contended that there was no evidentiary hearing on the motion for sanctions, and it
cannot be determined from the record whether the motion was heard at an oral
hearing or by submission.

      To identify and review the material that was properly before the trial court,
and to determine how the motions were heard, we accordingly seek the following
omitted items:

      From Cause No. 2016-12403,

         • The material e-filed at envelope no. 9326438;

      From Cause No. 2017-56890,

         • Defendant’s First Amended Motion for Final Summary Judgment and
            Sanctions (e-filing envelope no. 20571970);

      From Cause No. 2018-35029,

         • The material e-filed at envelope no. 24849221; and

         • The material e-filed at envelope no. 26578018;

      From Cause No. 2018-42929,

         • All exhibits to Defendant’s Motion for Final Summary Judgment,
            filed January 29, 2019;

         • Any summary-judgment response, or amended or supplemental
            summary-judgment response, filed in the period from and including
            January 19, 2021–May 15, 2021, together with all exhibits thereto;
            and

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  • Any notice or amended notice of hearing or submission of
     Defendant’s Second Amended Motion for Final Summary Judgment
     and Motion for Sanctions, filed in the period from and including
     January 19, 2021–May 15, 2021;

From Cause No. 2019-80239,

  • The material e-filed at envelope no. 38203148;

  • Defendant’s First Amended Answer and Counterclaims (e-filing
     envelope no. 45240790);

  • Any summary-judgment response, or amended or supplemental
     summary-judgment response, filed in the period from and including
     January 19, 2021–May 15, 2021, together with all exhibits thereto;
     and

  • Any notice or amended notice of hearing or submission of
     Defendant’s Second Amended Motion for Final Summary Judgment
     and Motion for Sanctions, filed in the period from and including
     January 19, 2021–May 15, 2021;

From Cause No. 2020-13849,

  • The material e-filed at envelope no. 41292597;

  • Defendant’s Answer and Counterclaim (e-filing envelope no.
     41869909);

  • Any summary-judgment response, or amended or supplemental
     summary-judgment response, filed in the period from and including

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             January 19, 2021–May 15, 2021, together with all exhibits thereto;
             and

          • Any notice or amended notice of hearing or submission of
             Defendant’s Second Amended Motion for Final Summary Judgment
             and Motion for Sanctions, filed in the period from and including
             January 19, 2021–May 15, 2021.

      The Harris County District Clerk is directed to file a supplemental clerk’s
record on or before January 17, 2023, containing the above item(s).

      If the omitted item is not part of the case file of the referenced cause
number, the district clerk is directed to file a supplemental clerk’s record
containing a certified statement that the omitted item is not a part of the case file.

                                  PER CURIAM

Panel consists of Chief Justice Christopher and Justices Wise and Hassan.

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