Court Opinion

ID: 9365188
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-01-23 07:09:08.385359+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:15:43.607951
License: Public Domain

COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE
                           FIRST DISTRICT OF TEXAS AT HOUSTON

                                            ORDER

Appellate case name:         City of League City, Texas v. Galveston County Municipal
                             Utility District No. 6
Appellate case number:       01-23-00007-CV
Trial court case number:     22-CV-0094
Trial court:                 10th District Court of Galveston County
       On January 4, 2023, appellant, the City of League City, Texas, filed a notice of
appeal from the trial court’s December 7, 2022 order denying Appellant’s “Plea to the
Jurisdiction and Special Exceptions” to the second amended petition of appellee, Galveston
County Municipal Utility District No. 6. On January 9, 2023, Appellant filed a “Motion to
Extend Time to File Notice of Appeal.” On January 10, 2023, Appellant filed a
“Supplemental Motion to Extend Time to File Notice of Appeal.”
       Absent a timely filed notice of appeal, we lack jurisdiction over an appeal. See TEX.
R. APP. P. 25.1. Generally, a notice of appeal must be filed within thirty days of the date
of the trial court’s judgment or appealable order, or, in the case of an accelerated appeal,
within twenty days of the judgment or appealable order. See TEX. R. APP. P. 26.1(a), (b).
The order appealed by Appellant, the trial court’s denial of Appellant’s Plea to the
Jurisdiction and Special Exceptions, has been identified by the Legislature as an appealable
interlocutory order. See TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM. CODE ANN. § 51.014(a)(8) (identifying
order regarding plea to the jurisdiction by a governmental unit as appealable interlocutory
order). Accordingly, Appellant’s notice of appeal was due within twenty days of the date
of the trial court’s order, no later than December 27, 2022. See TEX. R. APP. P. 26.2(b),
28.1 (identifying appealable interlocutory orders as “accelerated appeals”).
        Appellant’s January 4, 2023 notice of appeal was therefore not timely filed. In its
Motion to Extend Time to File Notice of Appeal, Appellant stated that the failure to timely
file the notice of appeal was due to a “deadline miscalculation.” Specifically, Appellant
stated that the deadline for filing a notice of appeal was calendared using the deadline for
a “non-accelerated appeal.”
        Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 26.3 allows for an extension of the deadline to
file a notice of appeal if, within fifteen days after the deadline for filing a notice of appeal,
a party files a notice of appeal in the trial court and a motion for extension of time to file
a notice of appeal in the appellate court. See TEX. R. APP. P. 26.3. Taking this extension
into account, Appellant’s notice of appeal and motion for extension of time to file a notice
of appeal were due no later than January 11, 2023. Appellant’s January 4, 2023 notice of
appeal and January 9, 2023 Motion to Extend Time to File Notice of Appeal were both
filed within the extended period provided by Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 26.3.
      Because appellant filed its notice of appeal and Motion to Extend Time to File
Notice of Appeal within the fifteen-day period provided by Texas Rule of Appellate
Procedure 26.3, Appellant’s Motion to Extend Time to File Notice of Appeal and
Supplemental Motion to Extend Time to File Notice of Appeal are granted.
       It is so ORDERED.

Judge’s signature: ____/s/ April Farris______
                    Acting individually  Acting for the Court

Date: ___January 19, 2023___

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