Willie Lewis v. City of Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Fort Worth Independent School District, Tarrant County College District, Tarrant County Hospital District, and Tarrant Regional Water District ( 2022 )

In the
Court of Appeals
Second Appellate District of Texas
at Fort Worth
___________________________
No. 02-22-00411-CV
___________________________
WILLIE LEWIS, Appellant
V.
CITY OF FORT WORTH, TARRANT COUNTY, FORT WORTH INDEPENDENT
SCHOOL DISTRICT, TARRANT COUNTY COLLEGE DISTRICT,
TARRANT COUNTY HOSPITAL DISTRICT, AND
TARRANT REGIONAL WATER DISTRICT, Appellees
On Appeal from the 236th District Court
Tarrant County, Texas
Trial Court No. 236-B43868-11
Before Sudderth, C.J.; Kerr and Birdwell, JJ.
Memorandum Opinion by Chief Justice Sudderth
MEMORANDUM OPINION
In August 2016, the trial court entered judgment that Appellees were owed
delinquent property taxes, and it authorized Appellees to seek the sale of the
corresponding piece of real property, which was partially owned by Appellant. In
May 2018, the real property was sold to pay the outstanding tax bill. More than four
years later, in October 2022, Appellant filed a notice of appeal to challenge the sale.
Generally, a notice of appeal must be filed within 30 days after the appealable
judgment or order is signed. Tex. R. App. P. 26.1. Although an appellant may
postpone this deadline by filing a qualifying postjudgment motion or seeking an
extension, these options postpone the notice-of-appeal deadline by days—not years.
See Tex. R. App. P. 26.1(a) (shifting deadline to within 90 days of judgments signing if
qualifying postjudgment motion is filed), 26.3 (shifting deadline 15 days if extension is
implicitly or explicitly requested). “[T]he time for filing a notice of appeal is
jurisdictional in this court, and absent a timely[ ]filed notice of appeal . . . we must
dismiss the appeal.” Manning v. Funimation, No. 02-22-00145-CV, 2022 WL 1573486,
at *1 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth May 19, 2022, no pet.) (mem. op.) (quoting Mitchell v.
Estrada, No. 02-22-00005-CV, 2022 WL 1183342, at *1 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth Apr.
21, 2022, no pet.) (mem. op.)); see Tex. R. App. P. 25.1(b).
Because Appellant filed his notice of appeal multiple years after the judgment
and order he sought to challenge were signed, we notified Appellant that his notice of
appeal appeared untimely and expressed our concern that we lacked jurisdiction over
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the appeal. We warned that we would dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction
unless Appellant (or any other party) filed a response showing grounds for continuing
the appeal. See Tex. R. App. P. 42.3(a), 44.3.
Appellant sent a response explaining why he was unavailable in the months
leading up to the sale and why he believes the sale was improper. But these
allegations address the anticipated substance of Appellant’s appellate issues—they do
not identify any legal grounds for our exercise of jurisdiction.
Because Appellant failed to file a timely notice of appeal, we must dismiss the
appeal for want of jurisdiction. See Tex. R. App. P. 42.3(a), 43.2(f); Manning, 2022 WL
1573486, at *2 (holding similarly where appellant filed untimely notice and response
did not show grounds for continuing appeal).
/s/ Bonnie Sudderth
Bonnie Sudderth
Chief Justice
Delivered: November 17, 2022
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