By:  Carona                                              H.B. No. 6
       73R630 PB-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to limiting damage awards in certain workers' compensation
    1-3  claims.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 2, Chapter 115, Acts of the 62nd
    1-6  Legislature, Regular Session, 1971 (Article 8307c, Vernon's Texas
    1-7  Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 2.  A person who violates any provision of Section 1 of
    1-9  this Act shall be liable for reasonable damages suffered by an
   1-10  employee as a result of the violation, and an employee discharged
   1-11  in violation of this <the> Act shall be entitled to be reinstated
   1-12  to his former position.  For the purposes of this section,
   1-13  "reasonable damages" include compensable and punitive damages in a
   1-14  total amount equal to the lesser of the amount of earnings lost by
   1-15  an employee as a result of a violation of this Act or $100,000.
   1-16  Any reasonable damages must be offset by any interim earnings that
   1-17  were either actually earned by the discharged employee or that
   1-18  could have been earned if that individual had undertaken reasonable
   1-19  efforts to mitigate the loss of earnings.  The burden of proof
   1-20  shall be upon the employee.
   1-21        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993, and
   1-22  applies only to a cause of action based on a claim for workers'
   1-23  compensation benefits that is filed on or after that date.  A cause
   1-24  of action based on a claim filed before that date is governed by
    2-1  the law in effect on the date that the claim was filed, and that
    2-2  law is continued in effect for that purpose.
    2-3        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-4  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-5  emergency   and   an   imperative   public   necessity   that   the
    2-6  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-7  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.