§ 19.003.Application for Relief

Where the application goes, in three cases, and it was updated in 2025 for the new business court.

A person interested in an instrument or in a judgment, order, or decree of the district court files with the district clerk of the county in which the record was lost or destroyed or from which it was removed. A person interested in a county court judgment files with the clerk of the court to which the record belonged. A person interested in a business court judgment files with the clerk of the business court.

Note the different anchors. For instruments and district court records, the county where the record was kept governs. For county and business court records, it is the court itself.

"A person interested" sets standing broadly. It is not confined to a party to the instrument or the judgment — anyone whose rights depend on the record may apply, which is necessary since a later purchaser in a chain of title is usually the person who discovers the gap.

Subsection (b): the application must be in writing and must set forth the facts that entitle the applicant to relief. The facts are the previous existence of the record, its contents, and its loss — the three things the court must find before making an order.

The business court reference was added by the 2025 legislation extending that court's procedures across the codes.