Rule 62 Damages for Frivolous Appeals

When someone loses an appeal, the winning side can ask the Texas Supreme Court to award them money as damages. This can happen if the court decides the appeal was frivolous, meaning it had no real legal basis and was a waste of everyone's time.

The court can also decide on its own to award these damages, without anyone asking. Before doing so, the court must give the losing party fair warning and a chance to respond.

When deciding whether to award damages, the court can only look at documents that were already part of the case. It cannot consider outside information that was never filed in court.