Ever wonder what it takes to get an Appellant’s appeal dismissed? The Dallas Court of Appeals has given us the answer in at least two circumstances, one involving defective briefing and one involving a failure to make arrangements to pay for an appellate record.
In Bridwell v. McMillin, the Court granted what appears to be a 60-day extension of time to file an Appellant’s Brief. Later, the Court granted a second extension of time to file the Appellant’s Brief–this time for 30 days. The Appellant filed his Appellant’s Brief 9 days early, but it contained a number of briefing deficiencies. The Court ordered the Appellant to correct the briefing deficiencies within 10 days or his appeal would be dismissed. By letter, the Appellant requested that the Court treat his defective brief as his amended brief–in effect refusing to correct the deficiencies. In response, the Appellee moved to dismiss the appeal for non-compliance with the Court’s order. The Court granted the motion to dismiss. The Court’s Memorandum Opinion in Bridwell can be found at this link.
In Brown v. Homecoming Financials, LLC, the Court first directed the Appellant to provide written verification that arrangements had been made for payment of the appellate record and warned her that failure to comply would result in dismissal of the appeal. When the Appellant did not comply, the Court dismissed the appeal for want of prosecution. The Court’s Memorandum Opinion in Brown, can be found at this link.