Court Opinion

ID: 9366198
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-01-26 09:10:32.269338+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:15:50.722735
License: Public Domain

In The
                              Court of Appeals
                     Seventh District of Texas at Amarillo

                                    No. 07-22-00371-CV

                         IN THE INTEREST OF C.W., A CHILD

                          On Appeal from the 320th District Court
                                   Potter County, Texas
       Trial Court No. 095964-E-FM, Honorable Carry Baker, Associate Judge Presiding

                                     January 24, 2023
                             MEMORANDUM OPINION
                    Before PARKER and DOSS and YARBROUGH, JJ.

       Appellant, S.E., appeals from the trial court’s Order of Termination, terminating his

parental rights to his child, C.W. We dismiss the untimely appeal for want of jurisdiction.

       The trial court signed the Order of Termination on September 22, 2022. See TEX.

FAM. CODE ANN. § 201.2041(a). A notice of appeal was, therefore, due within twenty days

after the order was signed, by October 12, 2022. See TEX. R. APP. P. 26.1(b), 28.4(a).

S.E. did not file a notice of appeal, however, until December 19, 2022.

       A timely notice of appeal is essential to invoking this Court’s jurisdiction. See TEX.

R. APP. P. 25.1(b), 26.1; Verburgt v. Dorner, 959 S.W.2d 615, 616–17 (Tex. 1997).
Notwithstanding that the Texas Supreme Court has directed us to construe the Rules of

Appellate Procedure reasonably and liberally so that the right of appeal is not lost by

imposing requirements not absolutely necessary to effect the purpose of those rules, we

are prohibited from enlarging the time for perfecting an appeal in a civil case. See

Verburgt, 959 S.W.2d at 616–17; TEX. R. APP. P. 2 (providing that appellate courts may

not suspend a rule’s operation or order a different procedure to alter the time for perfecting

an appeal).

       By letter of December 21, 2022, we notified S.E. that his notice of appeal appeared

untimely and directed him to show how we have jurisdiction over the appeal by January

3, 2023. To date, S.E. has neither filed a response nor had any further communication

with this Court.

       Because S.E.’s late notice of appeal failed to invoke the jurisdiction of this Court,

we dismiss her appeal for want of jurisdiction. See TEX. R. APP. P. 42.3(a).

                                                         Per Curiam

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