Dallas Court of Appeals, No. 05-12-01438-CV (July 26, 2013)
Justices O’Neill, FitzGerald (opinion), and Lang-Miers Jesse Shumway
The Court of Appeals dismissed an interlocutory appeal of a trial court’s denial of a special appearance because the appellant’s notice of appeal was untimely. Instead of perfecting his appeal promptly after the trial court’s ruling, the appellant filed a motion for reconsideration and an “amended and restated special appearance,” which the trial court denied. The appellant contended his appellate timetable ran from the ruling on these later filings. The Court of Appeals disagreed, observing that “allowing interlocutory appeals whenever a trial court refuses to change its mind would invite successive appeals and undermine . . . judicial economy.” The Court recognized that, in addition to moving for reconsideration, the appellant was permitted to and did amend his special appearance; but for purposes of the appellate timetable, the Court viewed the amendment as “substantially a motion to reconsider.” The Court concluded the deadline to file a notice of appeal was twenty days after the trial court entered its original order denying the appellant’s special appearance, and the Court dismissed the appeal for want of jurisdiction because the appellant failed to file his notice of appeal by that date.
