Court of Appeals of Texas, Thirteenth District, Corpus Christi-Edinburg
On
appeal from the 389th District Court of Hidalgo County,
Texas.
Before
Chief Justice Contreras and Justices Benavides and Longoria
MEMORANDUM OPINION
NORA
L. LONGORIA JUSTICE
Appellee
Lizzette S. Rodriguez filed for divorce against appellant
Jorge Alberto Rodriguez. In his sole issue on appeal, Jorge
argues that the trial court erred by denying his motion to
enforce the Mediated Settlement Agreement (MSA). We affirm.
I.
Background
On
September 2, 2015, Lizzette filed a petition for divorce in
addition to a motion for a temporary restraining order. On
September 10, 2015, after a mediation session, Jorge and
Lizzette executed the MSA, which Jorge claims resolved all
outstanding issues, including conservatorship, visitation,
and financial support.[1] On October 30, 2015, the trial court
rendered a temporary order, stating in part: "The
parties have agreed to the terms of this order as evidenced
by the signatures below." However, the order did not
recite the terms of the MSA, and MSA was not attached to the
temporary order. On April 8, 2016, Jorge filed a motion to
enforce the MSA and for entry of judgment; however, the MSA
was again not attached to the motion. The trial court
concluded that the MSA was executed simply for purposes of
temporary relief pending final resolution of the case, and it
set the case for a bench trial.
The
trial court rendered a judgment which is, according to Jorge,
inconsistent with the MSA. The final divorce decree was
signed on February 22, 2018; it makes no reference to the
MSA. On March 19, 2018, Jorge filed a motion for new trial,
but once again failed to attach the MSA. This appeal ensued.
On
November 13, 2018, Jorge filed a motion with this Court
seeking to supplement the appellate record with the MSA. We
denied the motion because Jorge conceded that the MSA was
never filed with the trial court. Jorge subsequently attached
the MSA to his appellate brief.
II.
Appellate Record
In his
sole issue, Jorge complains that the trial court erred by
denying his motion to enforce the MSA.
A.
Standard of Review and Applicable Law
"Documents
attached to a brief as an exhibit or appendix, but not
appearing in the appellate record, cannot be considered on
appellate review." Hogg v. Lynch, Chappell &
Alsup, P.C., 480 S.W.3d 767, 773-74 (Tex. App.-El Paso
2015, no pet.) (citing Warriner v. Warriner, 394
S.W.3d 240, 254 (Tex. App.-El Paso 2012, no pet.)); see
Garcia v. Sasson, 516 S.W.3d 585, 591 (Tex. App.-Houston
[1st Dist.] 2017, no pet.) (noting that attaching documents
to a brief does not constitute formal inclusion in the record
on appeal, and those documents cannot be considered by the
reviewing court); Robb v. Horizon Cmtys. Improvement
Ass'n, Inc., 417 S.W.3d 585, 589 (Tex. App.-El Paso
2013, no pet.) (same).
In
civil cases, reversible error occurs when the complained-of
error probably caused the rendition of an improper judgment
or probably prevented the appellant from properly presenting
its case on appeal. See Tex. R. App. P. 44.1.
B.
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