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House Bill 274 |
House Author: Creighton et al. |
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Effective: 9-1-11 |
Senate Sponsor: Huffman |
House Bill 274 amends the Government Code to require the Texas Supreme Court to adopt rules providing for the dismissal of causes of action, except for actions under the Family Code, that have no basis in law or fact on motion and without evidence. The bill requires the supreme court to adopt rules to promote the prompt, efficient, and cost-effective resolution of civil actions in district courts, county courts at law, and statutory probate courts in which the amount in controversy does not exceed $100,000 and requires those rules to address the need for lowering discovery costs and expediting civil actions. The bill prohibits the rules from conflicting with the Family Code, the Property Code, the Tax Code, or certain provisions of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code relating to medical liability.
House Bill 274 amends the Civil Practice and Remedies Code to require a court that hears a civil proceeding, on a motion to dismiss, to award costs and reasonable and necessary attorney's fees to the prevailing party, except in specified actions. Previous law authorized a district court, a county court at law, or county court to issue a written order for interlocutory appeal in a civil action not otherwise appealable under certain conditions. House Bill 274 instead authorizes a trial court in a civil action that is not brought under the Family Code, on a party's motion or on the court's own initiative, to permit, under the same conditions, an appeal from an order that is not appealable. The bill authorizes an appellate court to accept such an appeal if the appealing party files by a specified deadline an explanation of why the appeal is warranted. An accepted appeal is governed by the procedures in the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure for pursuing an accelerated appeal.
Current law establishes that provisions relating to the settlement of claims are inapplicable to certain legal actions. House Bill 274 adds an action filed in a small claims court to the list of actions that are not subject to those settlement provisions. Previous law provided a formula for determining litigation costs that may be awarded. House Bill 274 prohibits the litigation costs that may be awarded to any party from being greater than the total amount that the claimant recovers or would recover before adding an award of litigation costs in favor of the claimant or subtracting as an offset an award of litigation costs in favor of the defendant. The bill also prohibits a defendant from designating a person as a responsible third party with respect to a claimant's cause of action after the applicable limitations period on the cause of action has expired with respect to the responsible third party if the defendant has failed to comply with any obligations to timely disclose that the person may be designated as a responsible third party under the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. The bill repeals a provision allowing a claimant who is not barred by limitations from seeking to join a responsible third party even though such a joinder would otherwise be barred by limitations.