Opinion
NO. 14-20-00633-CV
11-03-2020
RYAN W. LANE, Appellant v. ANDREA E. LOPEZ, Appellee
On Appeal from the 257th District Court Harris County, Texas
Trial Court Cause No. 2018-76677
MEMORANDUM OPINION
This is an attempted restricted appeal from a final decree of divorce signed September 27, 2019. Appellant's notice of appeal was filed September 11, 2020. The notice of appeal in a restricted appeal must be filed within six months after the trial court signed the judgment. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Ann. § 51.013; Tex. R. App. P. 26.1(c).
Appellant's notice of appeal was not filed timely. A motion to extend time is necessarily implied when an appellant, acting in good faith, files a notice of appeal beyond the time allowed by Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 26.1, but within the 15-day grace period provided by Rule 26.3 for filing a motion for extension of time. See Verburgt v. Dorner, 959 S.W.2d 615, 617-18 (1997) (construing former 1986 Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure Rule 41(a)). Appellant's notice of appeal was not filed within the 15-day period provided by Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 26.3 and, while the Emergency Order promulgated by the Texas Supreme Court gives us discretion to extend certain deadlines, it does not include the extension of deadlines for perfecting appeals.
Twenty-First Emergency Order Regarding the COVID-19 State of Disaster, Misc. Docket No. 20-9091, ¶¶ 3 ("Any deadline for the filing or service of any civil case that falls on a day between March 13, 2020, and September 1, 2020, is extended until September 15, 2020. This does not include deadlines for perfecting appeal or for other appellate proceedings, requests for relief from which should be directed to the court involved and should be generously granted."), 4 ("This Order is effective immediately and expires September 15, 2020.") (Tex. July 31, 2020), 83 Tex. B.J. 611, available at https://www.txcourts.gov/media/1449546/209091.pdf.
On October 13, 2020, notification was transmitted to all parties of the court's intention to dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction. See Tex. R. App. P. 42.3(a). Appellant filed no response.
Accordingly, we dismiss the appeal.
PER CURIAM Panel Consists of Justices Spain, Hassan, and Poissant.