Court Opinion

ID: 9414595
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 06:11:52.814818+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:17:53.346930
License: Public Domain

DISMISS and Opinion Filed July 26, 2023

                                   S  In The
                            Court of Appeals
                     Fifth District of Texas at Dallas
                               No. 05-22-00892-CV

             IN RE ESTATE OF REGGY G. WEST, DECEASED

                   On Appeal from the Probate Court No. 3
                            Dallas County, Texas
                     Trial Court Cause No. PR-20-989-3

                        MEMORANDUM OPINION
      Before Chief Justice Burns, Justice Pedersen, III, and Justice Goldstein
                         Opinion by Chief Justice Burns

      In the underlying lawsuit, appellee Mary West filed an application to probate

the will of Reggy G. West, the deceased. Appellant Regena Marie Truelson

opposed the application and filed a cross-application for probate of will and

issuance of letters of independent administration. After considering appellee’s

application, the trial court sua sponte appointed Ashlei Dior Gradney as temporary

administrator.   Appellant appeals from this order.      Because the term of the

temporary administrator had expired, the Court questioned whether the appeal was

now moot. See In re Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc., 166 S.W.3d 732, 737 (Tex.

2005) (case becomes moot if controversy ceases to exist between parties at any

stage of legal proceedings, including appeal); MSC Gleannloch LLC v. Harris
Cnty. Water Control & Improvement Dist. No. 119, No. 14-19-00157-CV, 2020

WL 6278477, at *2 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] Oct. 27, 2020, no pet.)

(vacating temporary injunction order that has become moot and dismissing

appeal); Nat’l Collegiate Athletic Ass’n v. Jones, 1 S.W.3d 83, 86 (Tex. 1999)

(appellate courts lack jurisdiction over moot controversies). As directed, appellant

filed a letter brief addressing the jurisdictional issue.

      In her letter brief, appellant does not disagree that the appeal is moot.

Appellant asks, however, that if we conclude the appeal is moot that we first

dismiss appellee’s application for letters testamentary upon which the order

appointing a temporary administrator was premised because, appellant asserts,

appellee lacked standing to seek letters testamentary. Neither the order appointing

a temporary administrator nor that order’s subsequent mootness resolved the

competing applications for letters testamentary between appellant and appellee.

On the record before this Court, those competing applications remain pending.

Thus, we decline appellant’s request to dismiss appellee’s application for letters

testamentary.

      Because the appeal has become moot, we vacate the trial court’s June 3,

2022 order appointing a temporary administrator and dismiss the appeal. See MSC

Gleannloch LLC, 2020 WL 6278477, at *2; TEX. R. APP. P. 42.3(a).

                                                 /Robert D. Burns, III/
                                                 ROBERT D. BURNS, III
                                                 CHIEF JUSTICE

220892F.P05
                                           –2–
                                 S
                          Court of Appeals
                   Fifth District of Texas at Dallas
                                 JUDGMENT

IN RE ESTATE OF REGGY G.                  On Appeal from the Probate Court
WEST, DECEASED                            No. 3, Dallas County, Texas
                                          Trial Court Cause No. PR-20-00989-
No. 05-22-00892-CV                        3.
                                          Opinion delivered by Chief Justice
                                          Burns. Justices Pedersen, III and
                                          Goldstein participating.

    In accordance with this Court’s opinion of this date, the appeal is
DISMISSED.

      It is ORDERED that appellee Mary West recover her costs of this appeal
from appellant Regena Marie Truelson.

Judgment entered July 26, 2023

                                    –3–