Opinion
No. 05-15-00651-CV
12-14-2015
IN THE INTEREST OF R.M. AND R.M., CHILDREN
On Appeal from the 296th Judicial District Court Collin County, Texas
Trial Court Cause No. 296-52721-07
ORDER
Raised as an issue in appellant's November 23, 2015 brief is a complaint about the reporter's record. Specifically, appellant asserts the court reporter, by her "own admission . . . has lost 2/3 - 66% - of [appellant's] trial exhibits [and] [r]ather than disclose these facts, the Court Reporter - without any hearing or attempt at agreement of the parties - obtained purported copies of [appellant's] exhibits, and substituted them into the record. . . . Significant portions of the reporter's record remain lost or destroyed. The missing exhibits are critical to the presentation of [the] appeal."
Although appellant has requested, and we have granted, time to file an amended brief, and that brief has not yet been filed nor has the deadline passed, we ORDER the trial court to conduct a hearing, within thirty days of the date of this order, to determine whether the reporter's record, filed by Janet L. Dugger October 5, 2015, accurately reflects and contains the exhibits admitted at trial. See TEX. R. APP. P. 34.6(e)(2), (3). If the trial court finds any inaccuracies in the record, the court must order Ms. Dugger to conform the reporter's record to what occurred in the trial court, and to file certified corrections in this Court. See id. 34.6(e)(2). If the record cannot be conformed because an exhibit has been lost or destroyed, the trial court shall determine whether the exhibit has been lost or destroyed without appellant's fault and, if so, whether the exhibit is necessary to the appeal's resolution and can be replaced by agreement of the parties or with a copy determined by the trial court to accurately duplicate with reasonable certainty the original exhibit. See id. 34.6(f). The trial court shall make written findings of fact, and those findings shall be included in a supplemental clerk's record which Collin County District Clerk Yoon Kim is ORDERED to file no later than January 15, 2015. A reporter's record of the hearing shall also be filed by January 15, 2015.
We DIRECT the Clerk of the Court to send a copy of this order to the Honorable John Roach, Jr., Presiding Judge of the 296th Judicial District Court; Ms. Dugger; Mr. Kim; and the parties.
We SUSPEND the briefing deadlines, including the deadline for filing appellant's amended brief, and ABATE the appeal to allow the trial court an opportunity to conduct the hearing. The appeal shall be reinstated, and new briefing deadlines set, January 19, 2015 or when the reporter's record of the hearing and the supplemental clerk's record are filed, whichever occurs sooner.
/s/ CRAIG STODDART
JUSTICE