in the Interest of C.A. and C.A., Children

In The
Court of Appeals
Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana
No. 06-21-00056-CV
IN THE INTEREST OF C.A. AND C.A., CHILDREN
On Appeal from the County Court at Law No. 2
Gregg County, Texas
Trial Court No. 2019-1970-CCL2
Before Morriss, C.J., Burgess and Stevens, JJ.
Memorandum Opinion by Chief Justice Morriss
MEMORANDUM OPINION
On April 13, 2021, the trial court signed an order terminating Mother’s and Father’s
parental rights to C.A. and C.A. As a result, any notice of appeal by Mother or Father was due
twenty days later, on May 3, 2021. See TEX. FAM. CODE ANN. § 263.405(a) (establishing that
appeals from final termination orders are accelerated); TEX. R. APP. P. 26.1(b) (establishing that
notice of appeal in accelerated appeal is due “within 20 days after the judgment or order is
signed”). “Filing a motion for new trial, any other post-trial motion, or a request for findings of
fact will not extend the time to perfect an accelerated appeal.” TEX. R. APP. P. 28.1(b). The
period for filing a notice of appeal may be extended under Rule 26.3 of the Texas Rules of
Appellate Procedure, but to have availed themselves of that provision, Mother’s and Father’s
notices of appeal would had to have been filed within fifteen days of May 3, 2021, or on or
before May 18, 2021. See TEX. R. APP. P. 26.3. Mother’s notice of appeal was filed on June 15,
2021, and Father’s notice of appeal was filed on June 21, 2021, both well past the filing deadline
and much too late to take advantage of the extension provision of Rule 26.3.
By letter of June 24, 2021, we notified respective counsel for Mother and Father of this
potential defect in our jurisdiction and afforded both the opportunity to demonstrate proper
grounds for our retention of the appeal. Counsel for Mother and Father both responded to our
letter, claiming that their respective clients did not have counsel during a critical stage of the
proceedings—following entry of the final order. The record demonstrates the following:
• The order of termination relieved respective trial counsel for Mother and Father of their
duties and notified the parties of their right to appeal.
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• After the order of termination was signed, respective trial counsel for Mother and Father
filed post-judgment motions on behalf of Mother and Father.
• On May 14, 2021, the trial court reappointed counsel for Mother and Father. Each order
for reappointment of counsel stated that counsel was “reappointed to represent [the
parent] as counsel during the court’s plenary jurisdiction and as appellate counsel should
[the parent] wish to appeal.”
Even though counsel was reappointed to represent Mother and Father on May 14, 2021,
in sufficient time to file a notice of appeal in conjunction with a Rule 26.3 motion for extension
of time, neither party filed such a notice and motion by the final deadline of May 18, 2021.
Instead, as previously mentioned, both notices of appeal were filed well beyond that deadline.
The Supreme Court of Texas has held:
In an ordinary civil appeal in which the deadline to file the notice of appeal is
otherwise thirty days after the judgment or order is signed, filing one of the post-
judgment motions identified in rule 26.1(a) extends the deadline to ninety days.
But we hold that in an accelerated appeal, absent a rule 26.3 motion, the deadline
for filing a notice of appeal is strictly set at twenty days after the judgment is
signed, with no exceptions, and filing a rule 26.1(a) motion for new trial, motion
to modify the judgment, motion to reinstate, or request for findings of fact and
conclusions of law will not extend that deadline. Allowing such post-order
motions to automatically delay the appellate deadline is simply inconsistent with
the idea of accelerating the appeal in the first place.
In re K.A.F., 160 S.W.3d 923, 927 (Tex. 2005); see TEX. R. APP. P. 28.1(b); In re G.J.P., 314
S.W.3d 217, 221 (Tex. App.—Texarkana 2010, pet. denied) (motion to extend time to file notice
of appeal implied when appellant, in good faith, files notice beyond time allowed, but within the
fifteen-day extension period).
Appellate courts are not authorized to alter the deadlines for perfecting appeals in civil
cases. See M.M.S. v. Tex. Dep’t of Family & Protective Servs., No. 03-19-00755-CV, 2019 WL
6795867, at *1 (Tex. App.—Austin Dec. 13, 2019, no pet.) (mem. op.) (dismissing appeal from
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judgment terminating parental rights because notice of appeal was untimely); In re A.L.R.M., No.
06-18-00043-CV, 2018 WL 3400818, at *1 (Tex. App.—Texarkana July 13, 2018, pet. denied)
(mem. op.) (holding that dismissal of appeal for failure to timely file a notice of appeal pursuant
to Rules 26.1(b) or 26.3 of the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure is appropriate as “[appellate
courts] are not authorized to alter the deadlines for perfecting appeals in civil cases”); In re A.R.,
No. 06-17-00046-CV, 2017 WL 1953419, at *1 (Tex. App.—Texarkana May 10, 2017, no pet.)
(mem. op.) (dismissing appeal from judgment terminating parental rights because appeal was
untimely); see also TEX. R. APP. P. 2 (although appellate courts may “suspend a rule’s operation
in a particular case and order a different procedure,” an appellate court “must not construe this
rule . . . to alter the time for perfecting an appeal in a civil case”).
Because neither Mother nor Father timely filed their respective notices of appeal, we
dismiss this appeal for want of jurisdiction.
Josh R. Morriss, III
Chief Justice
Date Submitted: July 22, 2021
Date Decided: July 23, 2021
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