Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

502 S.W.2d 121

Morton v. State

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas

Decided December 12, 1973

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas · decided 1973-12-12

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““A motion for new trial shall be filed within ten days after conviction as evi denced by the verdict of the jury, and may be amended by leave of the court at any time before it is acted on within twenty days after it is filed. Such motion shall be presented to the court within ten days after the filing of the original or amended motion, and shall be determined by the court within twenty days after the filing of the original or amended motion, but for good cause shown the time for filing or amending may be extended by the court, but shall not delay the filing of the record on appeal.” (Emphasis added).”

quoted by 2 later decisions, including Farris v. State, Chappell v. State

““(c) In all other' cases such notice shall be given or filed within ten days after sentence is pronounced. “(d) The record on appeal will be deemed sufficient to show notice of appeal was duly given if it contains written notice of appeal showing a date of filing within the time required by law or if the record contains any judgment or sentence or other court order or any docket entry by the court showing that notice of appeal was duly given. “(e) For good cause shown, the trial court may permit the giving of notice of appeal after the expiration of such ten days.””

quoted by 1 later decision, including McIntosh v. State

Relies on St. Jules v. State · Bennett v. State · Menasco v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1973-12-12

How this case has been cited

Cited by 19 later decisions — most recently June 2007

19 state decisions

1601973198019902000decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1 OPINION

JACKSON, Commissioner.

¶2 This is an appeal from a conviction for possession of marihuana, with punishment being assessed at five (5) years, probated.

¶3 The record reflects that the jury returned its verdicts, as to both appellants, on November 9, 1972, with judgments being entered that date. Both appellants, by and through their retained counsel, filed original motions for new trial on November 22, 1972, and thereafter filed amended motions for new trial on December 1, 1972 and December 21, 1972, respectively. On January 26, 1973, the trial court overruled appellants’ amended motions for new trial, at which time appellants immediately gave notice of appeal to this court.

¶4 There is no statement of facts in this record.

¶5 There is no order of the trial judge granting leave to file the amended motion for new trial. See Article 40.05, Vernon’s Ann.C.C.P. The trial court’s docket sheet does not reflect that a hearing was held on any of the motions for new trial.

¶6 In the record before this Court, it is apparent that the appellants’ motion for new trial was not timely filed. Article 40.05 requires:

“A motion for new trial shall be filed within ten days after conviction as evidenced by the verdict of the jury, and may be amended by leave of the court at any time before it is acted on within twenty days after it is filed. (Emphasis added)”

¶7 As pointed out by the emphasized statute above, the appellants were under an obligation to file their motion for a new trial within ten days of the date of judgment, which was not done. The untimely filing of a motion for new trial prevents consideration of that motion. See Morales *123 v. State, 458 S.W.2d 56 (Tex.Cr.App.1970); Bennett v. State, 450 S.W.2d 652 (Tex.Cr.App.1970) ; Roberts v. State, 493 S.W.2d 849 (Tex.Cr.App.1973).

¶8 This Court has held that the provisions of Article 40.05 do not authorize an extension of time in which a motion for new trial can be determined. See St. Jules v. State, 438 S.W.2d 568 (Tex.Cr.App.1969). Under these circumstances, we are of the opinion appellants’ motions for new trial were completely ineffective to require a ruling on these motions by the trial court. Therefore, the trial court’s order of January 26, 1973, at which time the motions for new trial were overruled and notice of appeal given, was also ineffective.

¶9 The record further conclusively shows that notice of appeal as required by Article 44.08(b), V.A.C.C.P., was not filed within ten days of the judgment in this case. Therefore, since neither a timely motion for new trial nor timely notice of appeal were filed within ten days of entry of judgment, we conclude that this Court does not have jurisdiction of this appeal. See and compare Perez v. State, 496 S.W. 2d 627 (Tex.Cr.App.1973); Menasco and Hill v. State, 503 S.W.2d 273 (Tex.Cr.App., No. 46,222, 1973); Guy v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 455 S.W.2d 277.

¶10 Nevertheless, we note that under Article 44.08(e), V.A.C.C.P., the trial court may permit the giving of a notice of appeal after the expiration of the ten days mentioned in Sec. (b) on a showing of good cause. If such good cause is shown the trial court may yet permit notice of appeal to be given allowing the appeal to proceed under Article- 44.09, V.A.C.C.P. In such event, the allegations as to good cause and the evidence thereon should be shown in the record to enable this Court to properly review the same. See Menasco and Hill v. State, (on motion to reinstate appeal) 503 S.W.2d 273, No. 46,222, (1973); Perez v. State, supra; Morrow v. State, 481 S.W.2d 144 (Tex.Cr.App.1972); McDonald v. State, 501 S.W.2d 111 (Tex.Cr.App.1973).

¶11 The appeal is dismissed.

¶12 Opinion approved by the Court.

/502/sw2d/121 · .json · Public domain