Opinion
02-23-00483-CV
02-01-2024
Ta'Niqua Butler, Appellant v. Byron Butler, Appellee
On Appeal from the 467th District Court Denton County, Texas Trial Court No. 18-10967-16.
Before Sudderth, C.J.; Kerr and Birdwell, JJ.
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Bonnie Sudderth, Chief Justice.
Appellant Ta'Niqua Butler attempts to appeal from a divorce decree, but she filed her notice of appeal too late.
"The time for filing a notice of appeal is jurisdictional in this court, and absent a timely filed notice of appeal . . ., we must dismiss the appeal." Samiei v. Am. Furukawa, Inc., No. 02-23-00076-CV, 2023 WL 2805899, at *1 (Tex. App.-Fort Worth Apr. 6, 2023, no pet.) (per curiam) (mem. op.); see Tex. R. App. P. 25.1(b). Generally, a notice of appeal must be filed within 30 days after the judgment is signed. Tex.R.App.P. 26.1. There are several ways for an appellant to extend this deadline-by filing a qualifying post-judgment motion or requesting an extension from this court-but even then, the notice of appeal is due no later than 105 days after the judgment is signed. See Tex. R. App. P. 26.1(a), 26.3; Verburgt v. Dorner, 959 S.W.2d 615, 617 (Tex. 1997).
Here, Appellant filed her notice of appeal more than 300 days after the divorce decree was signed. In other words, it was untimely.
Consequently, we warned Appellant that we could dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction unless she (or any other party) showed grounds for continuing it. See Tex. R App. P. 42.3(a), 44.3. Appellant responded by filing a motion in the trial court and a brief in this court, but neither document addressed, much less remedied, the jurisdictional issue.
Appellant's motion enunciated reasons for extending the time to file her brief on the merits, e.g., the complexity of the case, the size of the record, and her desire to hire counsel. Her appellate brief addressed the merits of the appeal by explaining why, in her view, the divorce decree should be reversed.
Because Appellant's notice of appeal was untimely, we dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction. See Tex. R. App. P. 42.3(a), 43.2(f); Samiei, 2023 WL 2805899, at *1.