By:  Martin                                            H.B. No. 797
       73R3752 RJA-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the assignment of certain judges and justices as
    1-3  visiting judges.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 74.053(d), Government Code, is amended to
    1-6  read as follows:
    1-7        (d)  A former judge or justice who was not a retired judge
    1-8  may not sit in a civil case if either party objects to the judge or
    1-9  justice.
   1-10        SECTION 2.  This Act applies only to the assignment of a
   1-11  former judge or justice under Chapter 74, Government Code, made on
   1-12  or after the effective date of this Act.  An assignment made before
   1-13  the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect at
   1-14  the time the assignment was made, and that law is continued in
   1-15  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,
   1-21  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-22  passage, and it is so enacted.