By Cain                                                H.B. No. 699
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to regulation of certain motor vehicle dealers and the
    1-3  sale, titling, and registration of certain motor vehicles.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section  (a)(1-A)(vii), Article 6686, Revised
    1-6  Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
    1-7              (vii)  In addition to other requirements provided by
    1-8  law, the Department may not issue or renew a general distinguishing
    1-9  number as a motor vehicle dealer or a wholesale motor vehicle
   1-10  auction to an applicant until the applicant shows proof
   1-11  satisfactory to the Department that the applicant has purchased a
   1-12  properly executed surety bond in the amount of $25,000 with good
   1-13  and sufficient surety approved by the Department.  The bond shall
   1-14  be approved as to form by the attorney general and shall be
   1-15  conditioned on the applicant's payment of all valid bank drafts,
   1-16  including checks, drawn by the applicant for the purchase of motor
   1-17  vehicles and <in> the applicant's transfer of good title to each
   1-18  motor vehicle the applicant offers for sale.  In lieu of the bond
   1-19  otherwise required by this subdivision, the Department may accept
   1-20  and receive the pledge of cash, a cash deposit, a certificate of
   1-21  deposit, or other instrument determined by the Department to be
   1-22  adequate security for the obligations of the bond.  Recovery
   1-23  against the bond or other security may be made by a person who
    2-1  obtains a judgment against a dealer or wholesale motor vehicle
    2-2  auction assessing damages and attorney's fees for an act or
    2-3  omission on which the bond is conditioned if the act or omission
    2-4  occurred during the term for which the general distinguishing
    2-5  number will be valid.  The requirements of this subdivision do not
    2-6  apply to a person licensed by the <Texas> Motor Vehicle  Board of
    2-7  the Texas Department of Transportation <Commission>.
    2-8        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-9  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-10  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-11  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-12  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-13  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-14  passage, and it is so enacted.