Opinion
01-23-00066-CV 01-23-00067-CV01-23-00068-CV
11-09-2023
Brenetta Naneke Sherman v. Solvay USA, Inc., Rhone-Poulence Inc., Vencorex US, Inc., and Alfredo Celaya
Trial court: 239th District Court of Brazoria County, Trial court case number: 112783-CV-A, 112783-CV-B, and 112783-CV-C.
ORDER
Veronica Rivas-Molloy, Judge.
On October 26, 2023, Appellant Brenetta Naneke Sherman filed an Application for Extension of Time to File Brief, requesting that this Court "appoint her an appeals attorney" to help her with her brief. Subsequently, on September 28, 2023, she filed a letter asking for "help on my case" and asking if this Court "could appoint someone to help me."
We deny in part and grant in part Appellant's Application for Extension of Time to File Brief.
To the extent Appellant requests that this Court appoint her appellate counsel, we deny the request. While there is no general right to appointment of counsel in civil cases, Section 24.016 of the Texas Government Code authorizes a district judge to "appoint counsel to attend to the cause of a party who makes an affidavit that he is too poor to employ counsel to attend to the cause."). Erazo v. Sanchez, 580 S.W.3d 768, 770-71 (Tex. App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 2019); Tex. Gov't Code § 24.016. Appellant has not asserted that she requested and was denied appointment of counsel in district court. Even assuming this provision applies to appellate courts, the appointment of counsel under Section 24.016 is limited to "exceptional circumstances" in which the "public and private interest at stake are such that the administration of justice may best be served by appointing a lawyer to represent an indigent civil litigant." Coleman v. Lynaugh, 934 S.W.2d 837, 839 (Tex. App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 1996, no writ). Appellant does not argue, and we find nothing in the record to indicate this case involves the type of exceptional circumstances necessary for appointment of counsel under the relevant statute. We thus deny her request for appointment of counsel.
A district judge may refuse to appoint counsel unless a case is "exceptional." See Gibson v. Tolbert, 102 S.W.3d 710, 712 (Tex. 2003); Qutiefan v. Safi, No. 01-18-00425-CV, 2021 WL 3412174, at *6 (Tex. App.-Houston [1st Dist.] Aug. 5, 2021) ("The mere fact that [a party] represented himself is not exceptional.").
Separately, to the extent Appellant requests an extension of time to file her brief, we grant her request. Appellant's brief is due Monday, December 11, 2023.
Appellant's brief was due on September 1, 2023. We previously extended the deadline for Appellant to file her brief until October 10, 2023.
It is so ORDERED.