Brian Damon Ward 1426930 v. TDCJ, Warden Adams ( 2015 )

In The
Court of Appeals
Seventh District of Texas at Amarillo
No. 07-15-00051-CV
BRIAN DAMON WARD, APPELLANT
V.
TDCJ, WARDEN ADAMS, ET AL, APPELLEES
On Appeal from the 181st District Court
Potter County, Texas
Trial Court No. V-100850-00B, Honorable John B. Board, Presiding
May 19, 2015
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Before CAMPBELL and HANCOCK and PIRTLE, JJ.
Appellant, Brian Damon Ward, seeks to appeal the trial court’s June 23, 2014
Order of Dismissal for Want of Jurisdiction. To effectuate this appeal, Ward filed notice
of appeal on February 5, 2015. We will dismiss for want of jurisdiction.
Ward did not filed a motion for extension of time to file his notice of appeal in this
case. See TEX. R. APP. P. 26.3. Absent a motion for extension of time to file notice of
appeal, to be timely, a notice of appeal in a civil case must be filed within 30 days after
the judgment is signed unless certain motions1 are filed. See TEX. R. APP. P. 26.1(a). In
the present case, Ward’s notice of appeal was due to be filed in the trial court on or
before July 23, 2014. As such, Ward’s February 5, 2015 notice of appeal failed to
invoke the jurisdiction of this Court to address the merits of his appeal. See Verburgt v.
Dorner, 959 S.W.2d 615, 617 (Tex. 1997).
By letter dated March 17, 2015, this Court notified Ward of this apparent failure of
his notice of appeal to invoke the jurisdiction of this Court. By that letter, Ward was
directed to show cause, by April 6, how this Court has jurisdiction over this appeal or the
appeal would be subject to dismissal. See TEX. R. APP. P. 42.3. Ward requested an
extension of time to show cause by the April 6 deadline. This request was granted and
the deadline for Ward to show that this Court has jurisdiction over this appeal was
extended to May 6. Ward filed correspondence with this Court on April 27 and April 29,
purporting to address this Court’s jurisdiction. However, these documents in no way
address Ward’s failure to invoke this Court’s jurisdiction by timely filing notice of appeal,
as required by Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 26.1. See TEX. R. APP. P. 26.1(a).
Consequently, we conclude that our jurisdiction was not properly invoked to address the
merits of Ward’s appeal. See Verburgt, 959 S.W.2d at 617.
For the foregoing reasons, we dismiss this appeal for want of jurisdiction and for
Ward’s failure to comply with a directive of this Court. See TEX. R. APP. P. 42.3(a), (c).
Mackey K. Hancock
Justice
1
The record reflects that Ward has not filed any of these motions.
2