Opinion
NO. 14-19-00774-CV
02-14-2020
GILCHRIST COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION, Appellant v. COUNTY OF GALVESTON, TEXAS, Appellee
On Appeal from County Court No. 2 Galveston County, Texas
Trial Court Cause No. CV-0076026
ORDER
This is an appeal from a summary-judgment order that purports to be a final judgment based on a January 20, 2020 severance order. There is no summary-judgment finality language in the January 20, 2020 order. See Lehmann v. Har-Con Corp., 39 S.W.3d 191, 206 (Tex. 2001) ("This judgment finally disposes of all parties and all claims and is appealable.").
The Texas Supreme Court has advised that if an appellate court is uncertain about the intent of an order to finally dispose of all claims and parties, it can abate the appeal to permit clarification by the trial court. See id. Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 27.2 provides as follows:
The appellate court may allow an appealed order that is not final to be modified so as to be made final and may allow the modified order and all proceedings relating to it to be included in a supplemental record.Tex. R. App. P. 27.2.
Accordingly, we order the case abated and remanded to the trial court for a period of thirty days so the parties may clarify whether the summary judgment is final by seeking a further order or orders of the trial court, including, but not limited to, the finality language in Lehmann. A supplemental clerk's record containing any such order(s) shall be filed with the clerk of this court within forty-five days. If a party chooses to contest jurisdiction, the court requests any motion for dismissal be filed with the clerk of this court within ten days after a supplemental clerk's record is filed, or (2) the deadline to file the supplemental clerk's record, if any, whichever occurs first. After examining the appellate record, and on its own initiative after the time to file a supplemental clerk's record has expired, the court may dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction. See Tex. R. App. P. 42.3(b).
The appeal is abated, treated as a closed case, and removed from this court's active docket. The appeal will be reinstated on this court's active docket without further order of the court when (1) the supplemental clerk's record is filed in this court, or (2) the deadline to file the supplemental clerk's record has passed, whichever occurs first. The court will also consider an appropriate motion to reinstate the appeal filed by either party, or the court may reinstate the appeal on its own motion.
PER CURIAM Panel consists of Justices Bourliot, Zimmerer, and Spain.