In the Interest of P.S., A Child Appeal from 316th District Court of Hutchinson County (memorandum opinion per curiam)
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In The Court of Appeals Seventh District of Texas at Amarillo No. 07-22-00167-CV IN THE INTEREST OF P.S., A CHILD On Appeal from the 316th District Court Hutchinson County, Texas Trial Court No. 44,483, Honorable Curt Brancheau, Presiding June 16, 2022 ORDER OF ABATEMENT AND REMAND Before QUINN, C.J., and PARKER and DOSS, JJ. Appellant, S.S., appeals from the trial court’s January 20, 2022 order terminating her parental rights to her child, P.S.1 Appellant’s appointed trial counsel prematurely filed a notice of appeal on November 18, 2021. The notice was filed electronically, though the trial court clerk failed to receive it. Nor did this Court receive it. On June 9, 2022, appellant’s trial counsel filed a “Notice of Appeal, Request for Extension, and Motion to Remand for Appointment of Appellate Counsel.” He requested we deem the premature 1 To protect the privacy of the parties involved, we refer to them by their initials. See TEX. FAM. CODE ANN. § 109.002(d); TEX. R. APP. P. 9.8(b). notice of appeal as timely filed and remand the cause to the trial court for appointment of appellate counsel. The motions are granted. Appellant’s motion includes a “Notification of Service” from eFile Texas confirming that a notice of appeal was electronically filed by appellant in the trial court cause on November 18, 2021. Because an electronically filed document is deemed filed when a party transmits it to an electronic filing service provider, appellant’s notice of appeal was deemed filed on November 18, 2021. See TEX. R. CIV. P. 21(f)(5); NA Land Co. v. State, 624 S.W.3d 671, 674 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2021, no pet.) (“A document is filed when it is submitted to an electronic filing service provider, not when it is received by the clerk.”). The premature notice of appeal, therefore, became effective and timely on the date the order of termination was signed, January 20, 2022. See TEX. R. APP. P. 26.1, 27.1(a). Consequently, we abate this appeal and remand the cause to the trial court to determine whether S.S. is indigent and entitled to the appointment of counsel. See TEX. R. APP. P. 38.8(a)(2); TEX. FAM. CODE ANN. §§ 107.013(a)(1), 107.016(2)(B) (affording indigent persons a statutory right to counsel through the exhaustion of any appeal in parental-rights termination cases brought by the Department of Family and Protective Services). The means by which the trial court does so are at its discretion. Should it be determined that S.S. is indigent and entitled to appointed counsel, then the trial court is directed to appoint counsel and issue findings of fact and conclusions of law containing the name, address, email address, telephone number, and State Bar of Texas identification number of the counsel appointed. The trial court shall cause its findings and conclusions on the foregoing issues (and any related orders) to be included in a clerk’s 2 record, which record must be filed with the Clerk of this Court on or before June 27, 2022. We hesitate to impose such a short deadline but do so given the circumstances of the particular case and the time parameters for disposing of it. See TEX. R. JUD. ADMIN. 6.2(a) (concerning the timely disposition of parental-rights termination appeals). It is so ordered. Per Curiam 3
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