Love that none of them understand how this works (not that any of them have since the beginning) but cross appeal doesn't depend on Vics appeal being filed.
Well, it does insofar as if Vic hadn't filed an appeal and they had, it would just be called an appeal and not a cross appeal. Anyone who seeks to alter the court's ruling in a way more favorable to themselves must file a notice. TRAP 25.1(c). So, for instance, if the defendants merely wanted to oppose Vic's appeal, they would not be required to file a notice. Since, however, they are seeking to alter the court's fee award to increase it, they are obligated to file their own notice. So if Vic hadn't appealed, they could have, but it wouldn't be a cross appeal, just an appeal.
Since the parties have the same deadline for their opening briefs, it wouldn't be practical to do it as is done in some other jurisdictions, where the appellant may file an opening brief, and the appellee/cross-appellant files a response brief along with their own opening brief, styled something to indicate what it is, like "Response/Reply Brief of Appellee/Cross-Appellant" or maybe something less obnoxious depending on local practice. Then the plaintiff would reply with a brief in response to the cross-appeal, as well as possibly a sur-reply to the reply to their own opening brief, and the appellee might respond with another sur-reply (to the reply to their cross-appeal).
Sound fun?
Anyway MoRon managed to write themselves into a corner, the very day Vic properly requested an extension, and ended up with the deadline for their cross-appeal being a substantial period BEFORE the opening brief was even due.
Pure legal genius.
It's an understandable mistake to make, though with six figures on the line you think they could have paid some attention to the rules.
Well I mean Tyler Wolf is a fuckwit plain and simple.
Tyler Wolf is a sub-par imbecile who in his picture with his law firm colleagues looks like an exercise in "One of These Things is Not Like the Others."