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.