Bernard Black says he owns a small share of family land in Gregg County, and he is asking the court to divide it or sell it. He claims one sixteenth. He says everyone else named in the suit — which includes the four of us — holds the other fifteen sixteenths together.

We were each served individually, so each of us is separately a defendant. A defendant who does not file a written answer by the deadline can have a default judgment entered against them, meaning decisions get made about their share without them present.

Filing an answer prevents that. It is not an agreement to anything. It is an appearance.

Your Answer is ready. Download it, fill in the four blanks — signature, date, telephone, email — and file the PDF. Word is easier to complete on a computer; the PDF is there if you would rather print and sign by hand.

Each defendant answers for themselves. One of us cannot answer for the others — that is the one rule here with no workaround.

Each defendant's deadline runs from their own date of service, not Tizoc's. His citation shows August 7 at 1:15 p.m., which produces the Monday, August 31 deadline. Check the handwritten date on the officer's return on your own citation. If yours differs, your deadline differs.

Attorneys are required to e-file in Texas. Self-represented parties are permitted to, and with the deadline this close it is the only route that reliably arrives in time.

1. Go to efiletexas.gov and create a free account. Register as a self-represented filer, not as an attorney.
2. Choose File Into Existing Case. Location: Gregg County — District Clerk. Search case number 2025-2095-A.
3. Leave the filing-attorney field blank.
4. Filing code: Answer — it may appear as “Original Answer” or “Answer — General Denial.”
5. Description: Defendant [Your Name]'s Original Answer.
6. Upload your signed Answer as a PDF. A typed /s/ Your Name is a valid signature in Texas.
7. Under eService, add plaintiff's counsel and the other counsel of record. That satisfies the certificate of service at the end of your Answer.
8. Submit, then keep all three emails: submission receipt, acceptance, and the file-marked copy. If the clerk returns it for correction, correct and resubmit immediately.

File Saturday, not Monday morning. The clerk's office opens at 8:00 a.m. and the deadline is 10:00. A filing returned for correction leaves no room in that window. There is normally no fee for a defendant's original answer; the clerk can confirm.

1. August 5, 2026

   Third Amended Petition filed

   Black files to partition the property, pleading it as heirs' property under Chapter 23A.

2. August 7, 2026

   Tizoc served

   Citation delivered in person in Amarillo at 1:15 p.m., starting the twenty-day period.

3. August 28, 2026

   First attorney contacted

   Kristen Reid LaFreniere, Vander-Plas LaFreniere, Lubbock. No concrete direction yet; a detailed follow-up with the full case file has been sent.

4. August 28, 2026

   District Clerk contacted

   Asked the clerk's office to confirm the filing method for pro se answers and the deadline of record.

5. August 28, 2026

   Four Answers prepared

   Individual Original Answers for all four defendants, certificates of service completed. Each requires a signature, date, telephone and email.

6. By Monday, August 31, 10:00 a.m.

   File the Answers

   Four separate filings through eFileTexas. This is the step that protects everyone.

7. Approximately 30 days after filing

   Initial disclosures due

   Flagged on the citation under Rule 194. The next calendar item once the Answers are in.

8. Ongoing

   Retain counsel

   Filing now does not foreclose this. An attorney retained later may amend freely.

The Answer is a general denial — the standard defensive opening in Texas, and deliberately narrow.

The land is pleaded as Tracts I through XXV in Gregg County, across the W. P. Chisum, Solomon Slaughter and A. M. Coleman surveys. The metes-and-bounds tracts run 82.67, 30, 14, 58.35, 7, 2, 65 and 6 acres, followed by a list of Gregg County Appraisal District property IDs that may duplicate those same tracts. Paragraph 42 asserts there are no liens of record and that no one outside this suit holds an interest — another matter we have not admitted.

1. Each defendant confirms their own date of service from their own citation.
2. Destiny and Tamitra send Tizoc their email addresses for copying on court correspondence.
3. Tamitra supplies a mailing address for her Answer.
4. Confirm with the clerk whether any fee applies to an answer.
5. Response from Kristen LaFreniere; if none, proceed to the next attorney.
6. Calendar initial disclosures for approximately thirty days after filing.