Tywana K. Crosby v. Mauro Olmos ( 2022 )

In the
Court of Appeals
Second Appellate District of Texas
at Fort Worth
___________________________
No. 02-22-00455-CV
___________________________
TYWANA K. CROSBY, Appellant
V.
MAURO OLMOS, Appellee
On Appeal from the 67th District Court
Tarrant County, Texas
Trial Court No. 067-323901-21
Before Sudderth, C.J.; Kerr and Walker, JJ.
Memorandum Opinion by Justice Walker
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Tywana K. Crosby, proceeding pro se, attempts to appeal from the trial court’s
October 11, 2022 take-nothing judgment against her. Because her notice of appeal
was filed too late, we dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction.
Because the trial court’s judgment was entered on October 11, 2022, and no
post-judgment motion was filed to extend the appellate deadline, Crosby’s notice of
appeal was due on November 10, 2022. See Tex. R. App. P. 26.1. However, Crosby
did not file her notice of appeal until November 16, 2022. We notified Crosby of our
concern that we lack jurisdiction because of her late-filed notice of appeal, and we
warned her that this appeal could be dismissed absent a reasonable explanation for the
late filing. See Tex. R. App. P. 10.5(b), 26.3(b), 42.3(a).
Crosby responded that someone named “Bernice Gutierrez at McCormick
Law” informed her that her appeal was due on November 11, 2022. Crosby stated
that, because November 11 was a national holiday, she filed her notice of appeal the
following Monday, November 14, 2022. However, our record reflects that Crosby’s
notice of appeal was not filed until November 16, 2022, and she has provided us with
no reasonable explanation for this.
The time for filing a notice of appeal is jurisdictional in this court, and absent a
timely-filed notice of appeal or a timely-filed motion for extension of time to file a
notice of appeal, we must dismiss the appeal. See Tex. R. App. P. 25.1(b); Verburgt v.
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Dorner, 959 S.W.2d 615, 617 (Tex. 1997); In re J.M., No. 02-17-00171-CV, 2017 WL
2686326, at *1 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth June 22, 2017, no pet.) (mem. op.).
Because Crosby’s notice of appeal was filed too late, we must dismiss this
appeal for want of jurisdiction. See Tex. R. App. P. 42.3(a), 43.2(f).
/s/ Brian Walker
Brian Walker
Justice
Delivered: December 22, 2022
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