Surrie Fenlaw v. Harmony Independent School District

In The Court of Appeals

Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana

No. 06-21-00004-CV SURRIE FENLAW, Appellant

V. HARMONY INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT, ET AL., Appellees

On Appeal from the 115th District Court

Upshur County, Texas Trial Court No. 09-25TX

Before Morriss, C.J., Burgess and Stevens, JJ.

Memorandum Opinion by Justice Burgess

MEMORANDUM OPINION Appellant Surrie Fenlaw filed a timely pro se notice of appeal on January 14, 2021. The reporter’s record was filed on February 22, 2021. The clerk’s record was filed on March 18, 2021. The original deadline for Fenlaw’s appellate brief was April 19, 2021. At Fenlaw’s request, this Court extended the deadline for filing his appellate brief until May 19, 2021. On June 3, 2021, we notified Fenlaw that his brief was late and set a new briefing deadline of June 18, 2021. We warned Fenlaw that failure to file a brief by the June 18 deadline could result in dismissal of the appeal for want of prosecution.

On June 17, 2021, we received a document that purported to be Fenlaw’s appellate brief. That same day, we sent Fenlaw a letter explaining that, for numerous reasons, the document we received was inadequate to serve as a brief because it did not meet the requirements of Rule 38.1 of the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure. See TEX. R. APP. P. 38.1. In our letter, we provided Fenlaw with a detailed explanation of why the document he provided to this Court failed to comply with Rule 38.1 and provided Fenlaw with the opportunity to cure the deficiencies in his brief. We informed Fenlaw that, if he did not file a brief that complied with Rule 38.1 by July 8, 2021, the appeal would be subject to dismissal for want of prosecution. See TEX. R. APP. P. 38.8(a).

On July 8, 2021, Fenlaw provided this Court with a second document that we construed as a revised brief. That document also failed to comply with the requirements of Rule 38.1. Having received no document from Fenlaw that meets the requirements of an appellate brief under Rule 38.1 of the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure, Fenlaw’s appeal is ripe for dismissal.1

Pursuant to Rules 38.8 and 42.3 of the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure, we dismiss this appeal for want of prosecution. See TEX. R. APP. P. 38.8, 42.3; see also Running v. City of Athens, No. 12-18-00047-CV, 2018 WL 2326775, at *1 (Tex. App.—Tyler, May 23, 2018, no pet.) (mem. op.) (per curiam).

Ralph K. Burgess Justice

Date Submitted: July 12, 2021 Date Decided: July 13, 2021