City of Houston v. Little Nell Apartments, L.P

In City of Houston v. Little Nell Apartments, L.P., 424 S.W.3d 640, 644 (Tex. App.--Houston 14th Dist. 2014, pet. filed), Little Nell Apartments sued both the City and Daniel Krueger, a city official, in his official capacity. Both defendants jointly filed a plea to the jurisdiction in the trial court, which was orally granted in part and denied in part. The City immediately filed a notice of appeal. After the trial court entered its written order, the City filed an amended notice of appeal "to provide the written order." Id. Neither of the City's notices named Krueger as an appellant. The City and Krueger filed a second amended notice of appeal over two months later. The appellee argued that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear Krueger's appeal because he was not included as an appealing party on either of the previously filed notices of appeal. The Houston Court disagreed. The court also cited the "consistent policy" of the Texas Supreme Court "to apply rules of procedure liberally to reach the merits of the appeal whenever possible." Id.