In re J.E.S.

09-95-198 CV (Tex. Ct. App. Feb. 29, 1996) ; Clearinghouse Number: 51137

Description

Custodial Mother Did Not Receive Sufficient Notice of Final Hearing on Father's Motion to Modify Custody

Abstract

The Texas Court of Appeals has reversed the lower court's judgment appointing appellee father temporary sole managing conservator of the parties' child. Appellant mother and appellee father were divorced in Louisiana. Although the parties have two children, in the divorce decree only one child was referred to as being a child of the marriage. After father relocated to Texas, he asked the Texas court for modification of the parent-child relationship as to the second child. Mother received copies of father's motion to modify and his application to extend protective orders, which included a copy of the court's unsigned order setting the matter for trial, from father's counsel. However, she never received notice of the trial date from the clerk of the court. Failing to appear at trial, she received a default judgment, to set which aside she filed a petition for writ of error. The appellate court found the letter mother received to be misleading in suggesting that both the custody modification and the protective order matters were set for trial on the same date. Finding nothing in the record to verify mother's receipt of notice of the hearing on father's motion, the court reversed the lower court's order and remanded for a new trial.

Additional Information

Attorney Information
Appellant represented by Steven Hollimon, East Texas Legal Services, 527 Forsythe, P.O. Box 2552, Beaumont, TX 77704-2552, (409) 835-4971.
Docket Date
1970-01-01 06:00:00+00:00