By:  Ellis                                             S.B. No. 544
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the right of the attorney general to sue for forfeiture
    1-2  of certain bonds and to the disposition of the bond money.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subsection (a), Section 125.003, Civil Practice
    1-5  and Remedies Code, is amended to read as follows:
    1-6        (a)  If a condition of a bond filed or an injunctive order
    1-7  entered under this subchapter is violated, the district, county, or
    1-8  city attorney of the county in which the property is located or the
    1-9  attorney general shall sue on the bond in the name of the state.
   1-10  In that suit, the whole sum shall be forfeited as a penalty to the
   1-11  state.  On violation of any condition of the bond or of the
   1-12  injunctive order and subsequent to forfeiture of the bond, the
   1-13  place where the nuisance exists shall be ordered closed for one
   1-14  year from the date of the order of bond forfeiture.
   1-15        SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
   1-16  only to bonds posted on or after the effective date of this Act.
   1-17        (b)  Bonds posted before the effective date of this Act are
   1-18  covered by the law in effect when the bond was posted, and the
   1-19  former law is continued in effect for this purpose.
   1-20        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   1-21        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-22  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-23  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-1  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-2  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.