John Duffie Baker III, Carley Baker, Kay Baker, and Sandra Waller v. Farmers New World Life Insurance Company and Joshua Haessly

In The
Court of Appeals
Seventh District of Texas at Amarillo

No. 07-25-00332-CV

JOHN DUFFIE BAKER III, CARLEY BAKER, KAY BAKER,
AND SANDRA WALLER, APPELLANTS

V.

FARMERS NEW WORLD LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY
AND JOSHUA HAESSLY, APPELLEES

On Appeal from the 48th District Court
Tarrant County, Texas
Trial Court No. 048-345172-23, Honorable Christopher Taylor, Presiding

June 8, 2026
ORDER OF ABATEMENT AND REMAND
Before PARKER, C.J., and DOSS and PRATT, JJ.

Appellants, John Duffie Baker, III, Carley Baker, Kay Baker, and Sandra Waller,

appeal from the trial court’s orders granting summary judgment in favor of Appellees,

Farmers New World Life Insurance Company and Joshua Haessly. 1 Because the

appellate record does not contain certain exhibits referenced in Appellants’ summary-

1 Originally appealed to the Second Court of Appeals, this appeal was transferred to this Court by

the Texas Supreme Court pursuant to its docket equalization efforts. See TEX. GOV’T CODE § 73.001.
judgment response, we abate the appeal and remand the cause to the trial court for

supplementation of the clerk’s record.

On April 10, 2025, Appellants filed “Plaintiffs’ and Intervenors’ First Supplement to

their Combined Response to Defendant Farmers New World Life Insurance Company’s

Traditional Motion for Partial Summary Judgment and No-Evidence Motion for Summary

Judgment.” In that filing, Appellants represented that Exhibits 5 through 7, consisting of

recorded telephone calls in WAV format, could not be electronically filed with the district

clerk due to limitations of the e-filing system and restrictions on accepted file formats. In

lieu thereof, Appellants provided a hyperlink to a Dropbox link purportedly containing the

exhibits and furnished the trial court with a flash drive containing same.

This Court, however, is unable to access Exhibits 5 through 7 through the Dropbox

link embedded in Appellants’ supplemental response and therefore cannot consider or

review those exhibits as part of the appellate record. Moreover, even if the exhibits were

accessible through the link, the Court would be unable to verify their authenticity or

integrity in that format. Accordingly, the trial court is directed to ensure that Exhibits 5

through 7 are provided to the district clerk on appropriate electronic media, such as a

flash drive or other compatible storage device, in their original format. The trial court shall

further ensure that the exhibits are made part of the trial court record and are available

for transmission to this Court.

The trial court shall direct the district clerk to prepare and file a supplemental clerk's

record identifying and containing Exhibits 5 through 7 and to transmit the exhibits to this

Court on the electronic media provided on or before July 8, 2026.

It is so ordered.

Per Curiam

2