Document Info
DocketNumber: 09-21-00316-CV
Filed Date: 3/10/2022
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 3/11/2022
- In The Court of Appeals Ninth District of Texas at Beaumont __________________ NO. 09-21-00316-CV __________________ ESTATE OF PAUL C. MURPHY III __________________________________________________________________ On Appeal from the County Court at Law No. 2 Montgomery County, Texas Trial Cause No. 19-37828-P __________________________________________________________________ MEMORANDUM OPINION Paul C. Murphy III, appellant, filed a notice of appeal from a final judgment, which the trial court signed on August 31, 2021. The record shows the appellant paid the filing fee required for the appeal. On December 8, 2021, we notified the parties the Clerk’s Record had not been filed because Murphy had not paid for or arranged to pay for the fees charged by the County Clerk for preparing a Clerk’s Record. We also warned Murphy the appeal would be dismissed for want of prosecution unless he established that he had 1 arranged to pay the County Clerk’s fee so that a Clerk’s Record could be filed in his appeal or provided this Court with an explanation sufficient to show why he needed more time to pay the County Clerk’s fees. See Tex. R. App. P. 37.3(b). On January 5, 2022, Murphy filed a motion to abate his appeal. In that motion, he argued that objections lodged by other beneficiaries to the estate in the proceedings in the trial court be sustained, the order that he was complaining about in his appeal would be void, and the “appeal would no longer be necessary[,]” allowing him and the Estate to avoid the costs. Two weeks later, Rita Murphy, the appellee, moved to dismiss Murphy’s appeal when it appeared that Murphy had not filed a Clerk’s Record to support his appeal On January 20, 2022, we denied Murphy’s motion to abate his appeal. And on January 31, 2022, the County Clerk notified the Court that Murphy had not made the arrangements to pay for a Clerk’s Record in his appeal. The record shows that the Court notified Murphy in December 2021 that the appeal would be dismissed unless the Court received proof that he had made satisfactory arrangements to pay the fees for the records required to support his appeal with the County Clerk and with any court reporters. Given the absence of any reasonable explanation explaining his failure to arrange for paying these fees, we 2 grant Rita Murphy’s motion to dismiss. Accordingly, we dismiss Paul C. Murphy III’s appeal for want of prosecution. See Tex. R. App. P. 37.3(b), 42.3, 43.2(f). APPEAL DISMISSED. PER CURIAM Submitted on March 9, 2022 Opinion Delivered March 10, 2022 Before Golemon, C.J., Horton and Johnson, JJ. 3