By Hunter of Nueces, Marchant                         H.B. No. 2238
          Substitute the following for H.B. No. 2238:
          By Price                                          C.S.H.B. No. 2238
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to payment of fees for registration and licensing.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Article 8.01, Title 79, revised Civil Statutes of
    1-5  Texas, 1928, as amended (Article 5069.8.01, Vernon's Texas Civil
    1-6  Statutes) is amended by adding a new section (i) to read as
    1-7  follows:
    1-8        (i)  Any person who has or obtains a registration or license
    1-9  required by this Title, which registration or license was obtained
   1-10  at any time after the date on which the registration or license was
   1-11  required, may pay to the Commissioner all registration or license
   1-12  fees that should have been paid pursuant to this Title for any and
   1-13  all prior years, plus a late filing fee pursuant to this section
   1-14  (i).  In the case of a person who has or obtains a registration,
   1-15  the late filing fee shall be two-hundred and fifty dollars
   1-16  ($250.00) except that, if the person renews a registration within
   1-17  thirty (30) days after the due date, there shall be no penalty.  If
   1-18  a person pays the required registration fees for the prior periods
   1-19  and the late filing fee, the person shall be deemed for all
   1-20  purposes to have had the required registration for the periods for
   1-21  which the registration fees have been paid.  In the case of a
   1-22  person who has or obtains a license, the late filing fee shall be
   1-23  ten thousand dollars ($10,000.00) except that if the person
    2-1  previously had a license and the prior license was in good standing
    2-2  at the time of its lapse, and the person renews such license within
    2-3  one-hundred and eighty (180) days of its lapse, the late filing fee
    2-4  shall be one thousand dollars ($1,000.00).  If a person has or
    2-5  obtains a license and pays the required license fees for prior
    2-6  periods and the late filing fee, the person shall be deemed for all
    2-7  purposes to have had the required license for such periods but only
    2-8  as to loans as to which the person has not contracted for, charged
    2-9  or received interest in excess of that which would be allowed under
   2-10  Article 1.04(a) as modified by Article 1.04(b) of this Title.  A
   2-11  person who is deemed to have had a registration or license pursuant
   2-12  to this section (i) shall not be subject to any liability,
   2-13  forfeiture or penalty under this Title or other law, other than as
   2-14  set forth in this section (i), resulting from or relating to the
   2-15  fact that the person did not have the registration or license at or
   2-16  during the earlier periods for which the required registration or
   2-17  license fees and late filing fee, as provided in this subsection,
   2-18  have since been paid.  The acquisition of the registration or
   2-19  license and payment of the filing fees and late filing fee by a
   2-20  person shall also inure to the benefit of that person's employees,
   2-21  agents, employers, representatives, predecessors, successors and
   2-22  assigns but not to the benefit of any other person who should have
   2-23  been licensed under this Title.
   2-24        SECTION 2.  EMERGENCY.  The importance of this legislation
   2-25  and the crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-1  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    3-2  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-3  days in each house be suspended, and that this Act take effect and
    3-4  be in force from and after its passage, and it is so enacted.