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.