Court Opinion

ID: 9918523
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-01-14 08:12:51.038864+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:01:39.516380
License: Public Domain

Petition for Writ of Mandamus Denied and Memorandum Opinion filed
January 9, 2024.

                                     In The

                    Fourteenth Court of Appeals

                               NO. 14-24-00015-CV

                IN RE MICHAEL C. ENGELHART, Relator

                        ORIGINAL PROCEEDING
                          WRIT OF MANDAMUS
                Chair of the Harris County Democratic Party
                            Harris County, Texas

                        MEMORANDUM OPINION

      On Monday, January 8, 2024, relator Michael C. Engelhart filed a petition
for writ of mandamus in this court. See Tex. Elec. Code §§ 273.061–.063; see also
Tex. R. App. P. 52. In the petition, relator asks this court to compel respondent
Michael Patrick Doyle, Chair of the Harris County Democratic Party, to reject
Erica Roche Hughes’s application and remove her name from the ballot for the
151st Judicial District Court of Harris County, Texas.        Alternatively, relator
requests that the court “instruct respondent to: reexamine Engelhart’s Challenge
under a preponderance-of-the-evidence standard; properly review the ‘content’ of
Hughes’s petition; and reject signatures proven to be invalid.”

      Because there are contested issues of fact that must be resolved after a
hearing on the merits, relator has not established that he is entitled to mandamus
relief. See In re Angelini, 186 S.W.3d 558, 559 (Tex. 2006). Accordingly, we deny
relator’s petition for writ of mandamus. Additionally, all pending motions are
denied as moot.

                                  PER CURIAM

Panel consists of Justices Wise, Jewell, and Wilson.

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