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Sweed v. Nye

Five-and-a-half months after the trial court dismissed his case, appellant filed a notice of appeal that did not contain all the information required for a notice of restricted appeal. A month later he amended the notice to include the missing information. The court of appeals dismissed the appeal, holding that his original, incomplete notice of restricted appeal was insufficient to invoke its jurisdiction, and the amended notice was not timely filed. His original notice of appeal invoked the court of appeals' jurisdiction even though it was incomplete. The court of appeals' judgment is reversed. Texas Supreme Court, No. 09-0465, 10-25-2010

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Five and a half months after the trial court dismissed his case, James Lee Sweed filed a notice of appeal that did not contain all the information required for a notice of restricted appeal. A month later he amended the notice to include the missing information. The court of appeals dismissed the appeal, holding that Sweed’s original, incomplete notice of restricted appeal was insufficient to invoke its jurisdiction, and the amended notice was not timely filed. We conclude that Sweed’s original notice of appeal invoked the court of appeals’ jurisdiction even though it was incomplete. We reverse the court of appeals’ judgment.

Sweed sued Jay L. Nye (a public defender), Jaime Esparza (El Paso District Attorney), the Office of the District Attorney, the State of Texas, and the Texas Attorney General for malicious prosecution and false imprisonment. Eventually the defendants moved to dismiss for want of prosecution. The clerk’s office mistakenly sent notice of a status conference and notice of the hearing on the motion to dismiss to Sweed at the wrong address. Both notices were returned unclaimed. Sweed did not appear at the hearing, and the trial court granted the motion to dismiss. The dismissal order was signed on November 6, 2006.

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