Argonaut Insurance Company, and Trident Insurance Services, LLC v. West Independent School District ( 2016 )

IN THE TENTH COURT OF APPEALS No. 10-16-00352-CV ARGONAUT INSURANCE COMPANY, AND TRIDENT INSURANCE SERVICES, LLC, Appellants v. WEST INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT, Appellee From the 170th District Court McLennan County, Texas Trial Court No. 2014-1985-4 ABATEMENT ORDER On October 26, 2016, appellants, Argonaut Insurance Company, Trident Insurance Services, L.L.C., and the Texas Association of Public Educators, filed their notice of interlocutory appeal in this matter. The following day, appellee, West Independent School District, filed a motion to dismiss this appeal for want of jurisdiction and a request for an expedited ruling. Approximately a week later, appellee informed this Court that the parties had reached a settlement and would be “forwarding copies of the settlement documents shortly.” Thereafter, on November 4, 2016, appellants filed an unopposed motion to abate this appeal to allow the parties to finalize their settlement agreement. Appellants specifically mentioned that the granting of this motion “would almost certainly lead to the end of this case” and requested an abatement “until either (1) Monday, November 21, 2016, or (2) until the time that the parties or just one of them files a motion to dismiss the appeal, whichever is earlier.” On November 16, 2016, we granted appellants’ unopposed motion and subsequently abated the case until further order from this Court. By December 2, 2016, we had not heard from the parties regarding the settlement of this matter. Accordingly, we reinstated the case and informed the parties that their docketing statement had not been filed. In our December 2, 2016 letter, we informed the parties that this case would be dismissed if the docketing statement was not filed within twenty-one days of our December 2, 2016 letter. Appellants responded to our December 2, 2016 letter by filing a second unopposed motion to abate this appeal for “30 days or until the time that the parties or just one of them files a motion to dismiss the appeal, whichever is earlier,” so that they can finalize their agreement. After review, we grant appellants’ second unopposed motion to abate this appeal. Accordingly, this appeal is hereby abated for thirty days. PER CURIAM Argonaut Ins. Co., et al. v. West Indep. Sch. Dist. Page 2 Before Chief Justice Gray, Justice Davis, and Justice Scoggins Appeal abated Order issued and filed December 21, 2016 Do not publish [CV06] Argonaut Ins. Co., et al. v. West Indep. Sch. Dist. Page 3