Court Opinion

ID: 2919388
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2015-09-11 00:17:12.407046+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:56:28.150565
License: Public Domain

NUMBER 13-99-621-CV 

COURT OF APPEALS 

THIRTEENTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS 

CORPUS CHRISTI 
___________________________________________________________________ 

ROBERT K. JAEDICKE, ET AL., Appellants, 

v. 

ALICIA LOPEZ, ET AL., Appellees. 
___________________________________________________________________ 

On appeal from the 332nd District Court 
of Hidalgo County, Texas. 
___________________________________________________________________ 

O P I N I O N 

Before Chief Justice Seerden and Justices Hinojosa and
Yañez 
Opinion by Chief Justice Seerden 

Appellants brought the present interlocutory appeal from the trial court's order
overruling their special appearance. See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Ann.
51.014(a)(7) (Vernon Supp. 2000). However, appellees, who are the plaintiffs below, have
now filed notice of nonsuit as to all of their claims against the appellants and have thus
mooted the question of personal jurisdiction. 
Therefore, appellees move this Court to dismiss the appeal as moot. Appellants agree
that the appeal should be dismissed, but also request that the trial court's order be
vacated, the case below dismissed as to them, and that appellate costs be awarded to them.

A nonsuit is effective at the time it is filed and the subsequent signing of an order
by the trial court granting dismissal is purely ministerial. Greenberg v. Brookshire,
640 S.W.2d 870, 872 (Tex. 1982); In re R.G., 865 S.W.2d 504, 508 (Tex.
App.--Corpus Christi 1993, no writ). A nonsuit may thus have the effect of vitiating
earlier interlocutory orders and generally of precluding further action by the trial
court. See In re Bennett, 960 S.W.2d 35, 38 (Tex. 1997); Hyundai Motor Co. v.
Alvarado, 892 S.W.2d 853, 854-55 (Tex. 1995). 
Accordingly, we need not vacate the trial court's order or dismiss the underlying cause
of action in the present case, since the nonsuit itself concludes the lawsuit as to the
appellants and vitiates the complained-of order. However, we do exercise our discretion
under Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 43.4 to assess costs of appeal against the
appellees. 
We grant appellees' motion and DISMISS the present appeal as moot. 

__________________________________ 
ROBERT J. SEERDEN, Chief Justice 

Do not publish. 
Tex. R. App. P. 47.3. 

Opinion delivered and filed 
this 23rd day of March, 2000.