Full Opinion

Fourth Court of Appeals San Antonio, Texas MEMORANDUM OPINION No. 04-26-00392-CV IN RE B.M., Relator Original Proceeding 1 PER CURIAM Sitting: Lori I. Valenzuela, Justice Adrian A. Spears II, Justice Velia J. Meza, Justice Delivered and Filed: September 9, 2026 PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS DISMISSED Relator, B.M. 2 filed this petition for writ of mandamus on May 13, 2026. Relator also filed a motion for stay of the underlying proceedings pending final resolution of the petition for writ of mandamus, which this court granted on May 14, 2026, and renewed on May 21, 2026, and invited responses from the Real Party in Interest and Respondent. On June 24, 2026, the Real Party in Interest alerted this court to a pending motion to strike the Relator’s intervention in the underlying case. Accordingly, we modified and lifted our stay of the lower court proceedings for the limited purpose of allowing it to consider the evidence and arguments of the parties, and 1 This proceeding arises out of Cause No. 2024-PA-00066, styled In the Interest of M.A.T., a Child, pending in the 166th Judicial District Court, Bexar County, Texas, the Honorable Laura Salinas presiding. 2 This original proceeding arises out of a case in which the termination of parental rights was at issue. In order to protect the minor child involved, we refer to the parties according to an alias and their respective roles in this original proceeding. See TEX. FAM. CODE § 109.002(d); TEX. R. APP. P. 9.8(b)(2). 04-26-00392-CV to rule on B.T.’s May 14, 2026 motion to strike intervention and plea to the jurisdiction. On July 31, 2026, the trial court heard the motion to strike Relator’s intervening petition. On August 6, 2026, the trial court issued its ruling granting the motion and striking Relator’s petition. The existence of an actual controversy is essential to our exercise of jurisdiction. “A case becomes moot when (1) a justiciable controversy no longer exists between the parties, (2) the parties no longer have a legally cognizable interest in the case’s outcome, (3) the court can no longer grant the requested relief or otherwise affect the parties’ rights or interests, or (4) any decision would constitute an impermissible advisory opinion.” Elec. Reliability Council of Tex., Inc. v. Panda Power Generation Infrastructure Fund, LLC, 619 S.W.3d 628, 634–35 (Tex. 2021) (citing State ex rel. Best v. Harper, 562 S.W.3d 1, 6 (Tex. 2018)). By striking Relator’s petition to intervene in the underlying suit, there is no longer a controversy between the parties as to Relator’s jury demand. See In re Salverson, No. 01-12-00384-CV, 2013 WL 557264 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] Feb. 14, 2013, no pet.) (dismissing a petition for writ of mandamus as moot where the intervenor’s petition was struck and the case reached conclusion while the mandamus petition was pending). Because there is no longer a controversy between the parties, this original proceeding is moot, and we no longer have jurisdiction. Accordingly, we vacate our stay order of May 21, 2026, and dismiss this original proceeding. See TEX. R. APP. P. 42.3(a), (c). PER CURIAM -2-