ACCEPTED
01-14-00899-cv
FIRST COURT OF APPEALS
HOUSTON, TEXAS
4/9/2015 5:34:48 PM
CHRISTOPHER PRINE
CLERK
FILED IN
1st COURT OF APPEALS
HOUSTON, TEXAS
April 9, 2015 4/9/2015 5:34:48 PM
CHRISTOPHER A. PRINE
Clerk
FIRST COURT OF APPEALS VIA ELECTRONIC FILING
301 Fannin Street
Houston, Texas 77002-2066
ATTN: Christopher A. Prine
Re: Case No. 01-14-00899-CV; The State of Texas v. Titan Land Development,
Inc. and Bauer-Hockley 550, L.P.; In the First Court of Appeals, Houston,
Texas.
Dear Mr. Prine:
Oral argument was held in this case on April 8, 2015. At that time the Court indicated
that the State could provide a letter with a case citation for the proposition that
statutory provisions without penalties were directory rather than mandatory. Please
distribute this post-submission letter to Justices Jennings, Higley and Huddle.
In Helena Chemical Company v. Wilkins, 47 S.W.3d 486 (Tex. 2001), the Supreme
Court stated the following:
To determine whether a timing provision is mandatory, we first look to
whether the statute contains a noncompliance penalty. If a provision
requires that an act be performed within a certain time without any
words restraining the act’s performance after that time, the timing
provision is usually directory.
Id. at 495.
In addition, in further response to Justice Jennings’s question regarding other
provisions with similar twenty-day deadlines, a comparable provision would be the
civil suit answer deadline contained in Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 99(b).
Post Of fice Box 12548, Austin, Texas 7 8 7 1 1 - 2 5 4 8 • ( 5 1 2 ) 4 6 3 - 2 1 0 0 • www.texasattorneygeneral.gov
Mr. Prine
April 9, 2015
Page 2
Sincerely,
/S/ Susan Desmarais Bonnen
Susan Desmarais Bonnen
Assistant Attorney General
susan.bonnen@texasattorneygeneral.gov
SDB/lfs
cc: Charles McFarland via email: cmcfarland@mcfarlandpllc.com
and E-Service
Post Of fice Box 12548, Austin, Texas 7 8 7 1 1 - 2 5 4 8 • ( 5 1 2 ) 4 6 3 - 2 1 0 0 • www.texasattorneygeneral.gov