Court Opinion

ID: 9841110
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-21 08:08:55.250607+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:39:48.022995
License: Public Domain

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

                                       September 20, 2023
                      ORDER OF ABATEMENT AND REMAND
                       Before PARKER and DOSS and YARBROUGH, JJ.

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

appellate record was due August 25, 2023, but was not filed because Otos failed to make

payment arrangements for the clerk’s and reporter’s records. Otos has since notified the

Court that he previously filed a statement of inability to afford payment of court costs

       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.
pursuant to Rule of Civil Procedure 145, but the court reporter and Appellees have filed

motions in the trial court contesting Otos’s inability to pay costs. The motions are set for

hearing before the trial court on September 21, 2023.

       Accordingly, we abate the appeal and remand the cause to the trial court to rule

on the court reporter’s and Appellees’ motions to require Otos to pay for preparation of

the appellate record. See Shepherd v. Helen Painter & Co., No. 07-22-00314-CV, 2022

Tex. App. LEXIS 8380, at *1–2 (Tex. App.—Amarillo Nov. 15, 2022, order) (per curiam)

(doing same). Upon remand, the trial court shall conduct an evidentiary hearing in

accordance with Rule of Civil Procedure 145(f) and enter findings to support its decision.

Its findings and any orders issued shall be included in a clerk’s record, along with a

reporter’s record transcribing the hearing, filed with the Clerk of this Court on or before

October 20, 2023.

       All appellate deadlines are suspended until further order of the Court.

       It is so ordered.

                                                        Per Curiam

                                             2