Court Opinion

ID: 3094571
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2015-10-16 04:22:50.504043+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:49:18.621953
License: Public Domain

NUMBER 13-10-00230-CV

                            COURT OF APPEALS

                  THIRTEENTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS

                     CORPUS CHRISTI - EDINBURG
____________________________________________________________

             IN THE MATTER OF M.M.A., A JUVENILE
____________________________________________________________

               On appeal from the Juvenile Court
                     of Bee County, Texas.
____________________________________________________________

                         MEMORANDUM OPINION
           Before Chief Justice Valdez and Justices Garza and Vela
                      Memorandum Opinion Per Curiam

       This case is before the Court on appellant’s “Notice that Case May be Moot.”

M.M.A., a juvenile, appeals from an order modifying his disposition and committing him

into the custody of the Texas Youth Commission. We hold that M.M.A.’s appeal is moot,

and therefore, we dismiss the appeal.

      A case becomes moot “when the issues presented are no longer ‘live’ or the

parties lack a legally cognizable interest in the outcome.” Murphy v. Hunt, 455 U.S. 478,

481 (1982). M.M.A. was released from custody of the Texas Youth Commission on April
14, 2011, was released from all post-commitment supervision in this case on December

16, 2011, and turned eighteen years of age on March 18, 2012. See TEX. FAM. CODE

ANN. § 54.05(b) (Vernon 2002) (all dispositions automatically terminate when the child

reaches his eighteenth birthday).

      When a cause becomes moot, an appellate court must dismiss the cause, not just

the appeal. City of Garland v. Louton, 691 S.W.2d 603, 605 (Tex. 1985). The Court,

having considered the appellate record and the appellant=s “Notice that Case May be

Moot,” dismisses this cause as moot.

                                              PER CURIAM

Delivered and filed the
19th day of July, 2012.

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