By:  Culberson                                         H.B. No. 533
       73R2768 DAK-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the limit on exemplary damages recoverable in certain
    1-3  types of lawsuits.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 41.007, Civil Practice and Remedies Code,
    1-6  is amended to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 41.007.  Limitation on Amount of Recovery.  Except as
    1-8  provided by Section 41.008, exemplary damages awarded against a
    1-9  defendant may not exceed four times the amount of actual damages or
   1-10  $200,000, whichever is less <greater>.
   1-11        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993, and
   1-12  applies only to a cause of action that accrues on or after that
   1-13  date.  A cause of action that accrued before September 1, 1993, is
   1-14  governed by the law in effect at the time the cause of action
   1-15  accrued, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
   1-16        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-17  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-18  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-19  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-20  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.