Full Opinion

Opinion issued August 13, 2026 In The Court of Appeals For The First District of Texas ———————————— NO. 01-26-00517-CV ——————————— WILLIAM RODRIGUEZ, Appellant V. HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS, Appellee On Appeal from the 295th District Court Harris County, Texas Trial Court Case No. 2024-38700 MEMORANDUM OPINION Appellant is attempting to appeal from a judgment signed September 12, 2025. Appellant filed a notice of appeal on May 12, 2026. We dismiss the appeal. A notice of appeal is generally required to be filed within 30 days after the judgment is signed. See TEX. R. APP. P. 26.1. This 30-day deadline may be extended to 90 days after the judgment is signed if appellant files a timely motion for new trial or other post-judgment motion. See TEX. R. CIV. P. 329b. The appellate court may also extend the time to file the notice of appeal if, within 15 days after the deadline for filing it, appellant files the notice of appeal in the trial court and files a motion for extension of time in the appellate court. See TEX. R. APP. P. 26.3. An appellate court’s jurisdiction is invoked only if a notice of appeal is timely filed. See TEX. R. APP. P. 25.1(b). Here, the clerk’s record indicates that appellant filed no post-judgment motions that would have extended the deadline for filing the notice of appeal and, even if he had, they would only have extended the deadline until 90 days after the trial court signed the judgment or until December 11, 2025. Appellant filed his notice of appeal nine months after the judgment was signed. Appellant filed a brief containing a short response to our notice of lack of jurisdiction. In this response, appellant did not establish that this Court has jurisdiction, but merely asked that we avoid dismissing on a procedural ground. Without a timely-filed notice of appeal, however, this Court’s jurisdiction is not invoked and, if we lack jurisdiction, we have no choice but to dismiss the appeal. See Jarrell v. Bergdorf, 580 S.W.3d 463. 467 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2019, no pet.). 2 Accordingly, we dismiss the appeal. See TEX. R. APP. P. 42.3(a), 43.2(f). Any pending motions are dismissed as moot. PER CURIAM Panel consists of Justices Caughey, Johnson, and Dokupil. 3