Opinion
No. 11-04-00200-CV
October 21, 2004.
Appeal from Ector County.
Panel consists of: ARNOT, C.J., and WRIGHT, J., and McCALL, J.
Memorandum Opinion
On January 14, 2004, the trial court signed an agreed order confirming child support arrearage. The trial court rendered judgment against Ralph N. Worley in the amount of $14,750 and ordered that he pay the child support judgment by paying $200 a month beginning in February of 2004.
On August 11, 2004, Ralph Worley filed with the clerk of the trial court a pro se document entitled "Appellant's Opening Brief." In his jurisdictional statement, Ralph Worley states that he "appeals from final judgment rendered in a dissolution of marriage proceeding in Ector County." Ralph Worley proceeds to challenge the division of property and the child support award in the 1979 divorce decree. Ralph Worley also argues that the 1979 decree was incomplete, that he was denied not only due process but also the benefit of counsel in the 1979 proceedings, that Mary E. Worley perpetrated fraud upon the court during the 1979 proceedings, that the 1979 trial was irregular, and that the trial court abused its discretion by awarding Mary Worley attorney's fees in the 1979 decree. Ralph Worley also states that the present trial judge has a judicial bias against males. Ralph Worley concludes his brief by stating: "This whole divorce was wrong beyond belief." Ralph Worley has informed this court that he is in no way challenging the validity of the trial court's January 2004 order.
This court has no jurisdiction to entertain Ralph Worley's complaints directed to the 1979 divorce decree, the January 2004 order, or any other action of the trial court at this time. Direct appeals have not been perfected as required by law as to the 1979 decree and the January 2004 order. TEX.R.APP.P. 26.1; former TEX.R.CIV.P 363; Verburgt v. Dorner, 959 S.W.2d 615 (Tex. 1997). Ralph Worley has not filed any documentation that could be interpreted as a collateral attack on these two actions of the trial court and has failed to bring any other appealable decision of the trial court to this court's attention as required by the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure. Texas law does not authorize the challenge of a divorce decree by direct appeal more than 24 years after it was entered.
The law in effect at the time of the divorce.
The appeal is dismissed for want of jurisdiction.