In The
Court of Appeals
Seventh District of Texas at Amarillo
No. 07-15-00040-CV
IN THE INTEREST OF O.A.P., A CHILD
On Appeal from the 237th District Court
Lubbock County, Texas
Trial Court No. 2011-559,782, Honorable Leslie Hatch, Presiding
September 9, 2015
ORDER
Before QUINN, C.J., and CAMPBELL and PIRTLE, JJ.
We have before us appellant's motion for rehearing. The appeal was dismissed
on August 11, 2015, due to appellant's failure to prosecute the appeal by filing a timely
brief. The deadline by which appellant had to file the brief had been extended several
times by then. In dismissing the appeal, however, we informed appellant that the cause
could be reinstated if an appellant's brief accompanied a timely filed motion for
rehearing. The court received a motion for rehearing within twenty-four hours of the
dismissal. Therein, appellant represented that the missing brief had been completed on
August 3, 2015. Oddly, though, the missing brief did not accompany the motion for
rehearing despite the admonition in our order of dismissal. Nonetheless, the court
opted to submit the motion for rehearing via a telephone conference wherein counsel for
all parties would participate. It was anticipated that this would afford additional time for
appellant to comply with the previous statement in the dismissal order regarding the
filing of the brief. The hearing was set for September 8, 2015 at 10:00 a.m.
The hearing convened as scheduled without appellant filing a brief. At the
proceeding, counsel for appellant represented that he was unsure whether the brief
could be filed before the motion for rehearing was granted. He further told the court that
he was unaware of the admonition in the dismissal order until reading an opposing
party’s response to his motion for rehearing. Despite that response having been filed
on August 24, 2015 and his awareness of the admonition in the dismissal order, counsel
opted not to file the brief. His purported reason for doing so was the scheduling of the
September 8th hearing. In uttering that rationale, though, counsel neglected to offer an
acceptable justification explaining why he could ignore the admonition in the dismissal
order simply because a hearing had been scheduled.
At the September 8th telephonic hearing, appellant’s counsel represented that
the brief could be filed by 12:00 p.m. of the same day, and counsel was permitted that
opportunity. The court received no brief by that hour. And, though a document was
filed approximately forty-five minutes after the deadline, it failed to comply with Texas
Rules of Appellate Procedure 9.9 and 38.1.
Consequently, we deny the motion for rehearing.
Per Curiam
2