Opinion
NO. 14-16-00727-CV
10-10-2017
HARVELLA JONES, Appellant v. JONATHAN ANDERSON, Appellee
On Appeal from the County Court at Law No. 2 Fort Bend County, Texas
Trial Court Cause No. 14-CCV-052079
ORDER
On September 7, 2017, this court issued a memorandum opinion stating that, by two orders signed on April 19, 2016, the trial court
• ordered that plaintiff/appellant Harvella Jones take nothing on all her claims and causes of action against two defendants and severed Jones's claims against those defendants into Cause No. 14-CCV-052079-A;
• granted a motion to dismiss filed on behalf of the remaining seven defendants and severed Jones's claims against those seven defendants into Cause No. 14-CCV-052079-B.
By order nunc pro tunc, the trial court later changed the cause number of these redocketed claims to 16-CCV-057239.
We explained that, taken together, the two orders constituted a final judgment disposing of all parties and claims. Because Jones brought this appeal nearly five months later, we advised Jones on August 14, 2017 that we would dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction unless a response was filed within ten days demonstrating grounds for continuing the appeal. We received no response, and after declaring void the trial court's order of August 16, 2016, as having been rendered after the trial court lost plenary power over the case, we dismissed the appeal for want of jurisdiction.
On September 19, 2017, Jones filed a motion to reinstate the appeal. She asserted that on May 19, 2016, the trial court amended the order dismissing and severing Jones's claims against seven defendants so that the order instead dismissed and severed Jones's claims against only six defendants, leaving Jones's claims against defendant/appellee Jonathan Anderson pending in the main action. No such order was in the appellate record, but according to the unofficial copy Jones attached to her motion, the amended order also changed the cause number of the severed action against those six defendants from Cause No. 14-CCV-052079-B to Cause No. 16-CCV-057292, and the amended order was filed only under the new cause number. We ordered the appellate record supplemented to include the amended order, and the supplemental record shows Jones to be correct.
Jones's motion to reinstate her appeal therefore is GRANTED. Our memorandum opinion of September 7, 2017 is WITHDRAWN; our judgment of that date is VACATED; and Jones's appeal is REINSTATED.
PER CURIAM Panel consists of Justices Christopher, Brown, and Wise.