C. G. and L.G. v. Texas Department of Family and Protective Services ( 2023 )

TEXAS COURT OF APPEALS, THIRD DISTRICT, AT AUSTIN
NO. 03-22-00754-CV
NO. 03-23-00289-CV
C. G. and L.G., Appellants
v.
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, Appellee
FROM THE 146TH DISTRICT COURT OF BELL COUNTY
NO. 21DFAM327449, THE HONORABLE DALLAS SIMS, JUDGE PRESIDING
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Appellants C.G. (Mother) and L.G. (Father) each filed a notice of appeal from an
associate judge’s order terminating their parental rights to their child Z.G. (Daughter). The
district court subsequently granted a de novo hearing on the matter, and Mother filed with this
Court a motion to dismiss or, in the alternative, abate this appeal pending the outcome of the
de novo hearing. Because both the clerk’s record of the underlying proceedings and the
reporter’s record of the trial before the associate judge had already been filed in this appeal, we
abated the appeal.
We have now received the district court’s de novo decree of termination. We
construe Mother’s and Father’s notices of appeal from the associate judge’s order as prematurely
filed notices of appeal from the de novo decree of termination, which we have filed separately
under cause number 03-23-00289-CV. See Tex. R. App. P. 27.1(a). On this Court’s own
motion, we consolidate for all purposes the appeal in cause number 03-22-00754-CV with the
appeal in cause number 03-23-00289-CV. Accordingly, all records and documents filed in cause
number 03-22-00754-CV are consolidated into cause number 03-23-00289-CV. The
consolidated appeal shall proceed under cause number 03-23-00289-CV, and cause number
03-22-00754-CV is hereby dismissed for want of jurisdiction. See In re A.G.D.M., 533 S.W.3d
546, 547 (Tex. App.—Amarillo 2017, no pet.); Graham v. Graham, 414 S.W.3d 800, 801-02
(Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 2013, no pet.); see also Guyaux v. Walnut Springs Homeowners
Ass’n, Inc., No. 03-20-00584-CV, 2021 WL 162503 (Tex. App.—Austin Jan. 5, 2021, no pet.)
(mem. op.).
__________________________________________
Gisela D. Triana, Justice
Before Chief Justice Byrne, Justices Triana and Smith
03-22-00754-CV Dismissed
03-23-00289-CV Consolidated
Filed: May 26, 2023
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