Opinion
01-23-00295-CV
11-21-2023
Phyllis J. Morgan v. Hani Hanna and Naglaa Ghobriel
County Court at Law No. 2, Galveston County, Texas Trial court case number: CV-0087282
ORDER
Terry Adams Judge.
On April 21, 2023, this Court ordered the parties to mediation. See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code §§ 154.021, 154.022(a), 154.023. No party timely objected to mediation. See id. § 154.022(b).
After the parties failed to comply with our April 21 order referring the parties to mediation, we issued a second order on August 24, 2023, abating the appeal and again ordering the parties to proceed to mediation. Because the parties failed to object to our April 21 order, we noted that any objection to our second order would be untimely.
The parties again failed to comply with our August 24 order.
Instead, appellees Hani Hanna and Naglaa Ghobriel moved to dismiss appellant Phyllis J. Morgan's appeal for failure to comply. See Tex. R. App. P. 42.3(c). According to appellees, they attempted to comply with this Court's orders and schedule mediation- but have received no response from appellant. Appellant filed a response generally blaming appellees for the parties' failure to comply with this Court's orders-but appellant provided no supporting explanation for her assertion.
There can be no doubt that parties are required to comply with this Court's orders. Moreover, this Court has exclusive jurisdiction to enforce its orders-which it must do. See In re Gabbai, 968 S.W.2d 929, 931 (Tex. 1998); see also Tex. R. App. P. 42.3(c).
Accordingly, we hereby order appellant and appellees to each file a verified response with this Court, no later than 5:00 p.m. on Monday, November 27, 2023, detailing (1) why the Court's orders of April 21, 2023 and August 24, 2023 have not been complied with; and (2) why the Court should not consider imposing appropriate sanctions against the parties for failure to comply with its two orders.
Any failure by any party to comply with this order may subject that party to an appropriate sanction.
It is so ORDERED