By Pitts                                              H.B. No. 1143
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to an action for recovery of real property conveyed by an
    1-3  instrument with certain technical defects.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 16.033(a), Civil Practice and Remedies
    1-6  Code, is amended to read as follows:
    1-7        (a)  A person with a right of action for the recovery of real
    1-8  property conveyed by an instrument with one of the following
    1-9  defects must bring suit not later than four <10> years after the
   1-10  day the instrument was recorded with the county clerk of the county
   1-11  where the real property is located:
   1-12              (1)  lack of the signature of a proper corporate
   1-13  officer, partner, or company officer, manager, or member;
   1-14              (2)  lack of a corporate seal;
   1-15              (3)  failure of the record to show the corporate seal
   1-16  used;
   1-17              (4)  failure of the record to show authority of the
   1-18  board of directors or stockholders of a corporation, partners of a
   1-19  partnership, or officers, managers, or members of a company;
   1-20              (5)  execution and delivery of the instrument by a
   1-21  corporation, partnership, or other company that had been dissolved,
   1-22  whose charter had expired, or whose franchise had been canceled,
   1-23  withdrawn, or forfeited;
   1-24              (6)  acknowledgment of the instrument in an individual,
    2-1  rather than a representative or official, capacity;
    2-2              (7)  execution of the instrument by a trustee without
    2-3  record of the authority of the trustee or proof of the facts
    2-4  recited in the instrument;
    2-5              (8)  <failure of the public officer taking the
    2-6  acknowledgment to affix the official seal to the instrument;>
    2-7              <(9)>  failure of the record or instrument to show an
    2-8  acknowledgment or jurat that complies with applicable law <the
    2-9  notarial seal>; or
   2-10              (9) <(10)>  wording of the stated consideration that
   2-11  may or might create an implied lien in favor of the grantor.
   2-12        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993, and
   2-13  applies only to a suit that is filed on or after that date.  A suit
   2-14  that is filed before the effective date of this Act is governed by
   2-15  the law in effect at the time the suit is filed, and that law is
   2-16  continued in effect for that purpose.
   2-17        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-18  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-19  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-20  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-21  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.