By:  Hilderbran                                       H.B. No. 2613
       73R5447 DLF-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to a court clerk's authority to contest an affidavit of
    1-3  inability to file costs.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Chapter 13, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, is
    1-6  amended by adding Section 13.003 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 13.003.  CLERK OF COURT MAY CONTEST.  (a)  The clerk of
    1-8  a court in which an affidavit of inability to pay costs under Rule
    1-9  145, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, has been filed may contest the
   1-10  affidavit in the same manner as a defendant in the action.
   1-11        (b)  Notwithstanding Section 22.004, Government Code, this
   1-12  section may not be modified or repealed by a rule adopted by the
   1-13  supreme court.
   1-14        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993, and
   1-15  applies only to an affidavit of inability to pay costs filed on or
   1-16  after the effective date of this Act.  An affidavit of inability to
   1-17  pay costs filed before the effective date of this Act is governed
   1-18  by the law in effect at the time the affidavit was filed, and that
   1-19  law is continued in effect for that purpose.
   1-20        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-21  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-22  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-23  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-24  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.