Court Opinion

ID: 9889267
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-07 17:11:03.253352+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:37:49.165720
License: Public Domain

NUMBER 13-23-00350-CV

                           COURT OF APPEALS

                  THIRTEENTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS

                    CORPUS CHRISTI – EDINBURG

                   IN THE INTEREST OF K.S.H., A CHILD

                  On appeal from the 329th District Court
                       of Wharton County, Texas.

                        MEMORANDUM OPINION

                  Before Justices Tijerina, Silva, and Peña
                   Memorandum Opinion by Justice Silva

      Appellant filed a motion for rehearing of our memorandum opinion issued on

August 31, 2023, dismissing his appeal for want of jurisdiction. We deny appellant’s

motion for rehearing, withdraw our original memorandum opinion, and substitute this

memorandum opinion for our original one.

      Appellant H.H. attempts to appeal the trial court’s order of May 18, 2023,

terminating the parent-child relationship between he and K.S.H. Appellant’s notice of
appeal was filed on August 3, 2023, outside of the twenty-day filing requirement for cases

involving termination of the parent-child relationship. See TEX. R. APP. P. 26.1(b),

28.4(a)(1). On August 8, 2023, the Clerk of the Court notified appellant of the defect and

directed him to correct the defect within ten days, if possible, or appeal would be

dismissed. On August 16, 2023, the Court received the return receipt signed by appellant,

demonstrating that appellant received the Court’s notice on August 11, 2023. Appellant

filed an amended notice of appeal with the Wharton County District Clerk’s office on

August 24, 2023. 1

        Although appellant asserts that he did not receive notice of the judgment until July

24, 2023, see TEX. R. CIV. P. 306a(4), he did not comply with Texas Rule of Civil

Procedure 306a(5), which requires that the party who received late notice of a judgment

“to prove in the trial court, on sworn motion and notice, the date on which the party or his

attorney first either received a notice of the judgment or acquired actual knowledge of the

signing and that this date was more than twenty days after the judgment was signed.”

TEX. R. CIV. P. 306a(5). Moreover, appellant’s amended notice of appeal fell outside of

the ninety-day period during which appellant could extend the period to file post-judgment

motions. See id.; TEX. R. APP. P. 2. see also Krussow v. Garcia, No. 13-20-00179-CV,

2020 WL 7253395, at *2 (Tex. App.—Corpus Christi–Edinburg Dec. 10, 2020, pet.

denied) (mem. op.).

        1 Appellant’s amended notice of appeal was attached to a brief filed with this Court on September

18, 2023, but was not forwarded by the Wharton County District Clerk to this Court.

                                                    2
       Accordingly, the appeal is dismissed for want of jurisdiction. See id. R. 26.1(b),

28.4(a)(1), 42.3(a), (c).

                                                             CLARISSA SILVA
                                                             Justice

Delivered and filed on the
5th day of October, 2023.

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