By:  Culberson                                         H.B. No. 534
       73R2750 DAK-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to venue for an action against certain foreign companies.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 15.037, Civil Practice and Remedies Code,
    1-5  is amended to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 15.037.  Foreign Corporations.  Foreign corporations,
    1-7  private or public, joint-stock companies or associations, not
    1-8  incorporated by the laws of this state, and doing business in this
    1-9  state, may be sued in any county in which all or a part of the
   1-10  cause of action accrued, <or in any county in which the company may
   1-11  have an agency or representative, or> in the county in which the
   1-12  principal office of the company may be situated, or, if the
   1-13  defendant corporation has no principal office <agent or
   1-14  representative> in this state, then in the county in which the
   1-15  plaintiffs or either of them resided at the time the cause of
   1-16  action accrued <reside>.  <For the purposes of this section, the
   1-17  mere ownership, leasing of tracks, roadbeds, or right-of-way or
   1-18  maintenance or repair of tracks is not considered to constitute an
   1-19  agency or representative of a railroad corporation, and employees,
   1-20  excluding management, solely engaged in general maintenance,
   1-21  switching, loading or unloading, or operating trains in transit
   1-22  shall not be considered agents or representatives of a railroad
   1-23  corporation.>
   1-24        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993, and
    2-1  applies only to an action commenced on or after the effective date
    2-2  of this Act.  An action commenced before the effective date of this
    2-3  Act is governed by the law in effect at the time the action was
    2-4  commenced and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
    2-5        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-6  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-7  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-8  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-9  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.