By:  Sims                                              S.B. No. 967
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the disparagement of agricultural and aquacultural food
    1-2  products and creating a cause of action.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  The Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code is
    1-5  amended by adding a new Chapter 85 to read as follows:
    1-6          CHAPTER 85.  DISPARAGEMENT OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS
    1-7        Sec. 85.01.  LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS.  The legislature hereby
    1-8  finds, determines, and declares that the production of agricultural
    1-9  and aquacultural food products constitutes an important and
   1-10  significant portion of the state economy and that it is beneficial
   1-11  to the citizens of this state to protect the vitality of the
   1-12  agricultural and aquacultural economy by providing a cause of
   1-13  action for producers of perishable agricultural and aquacultural
   1-14  food products to recover damages for the disparagement of any
   1-15  perishable agricultural or aquacultural food product.
   1-16        Sec. 85.02.  DEFINITIONS.  In this chapter:
   1-17              (1)  "Disparagement" means dissemination to the public
   1-18  in any manner of any information that the disseminator knows or
   1-19  should have known to be false and which states or implies that a
   1-20  perishable agricultural or aquacultural food product is not safe
   1-21  for consumption by the public.  Such information is presumed to be
   1-22  false when not based upon reasonable and reliable scientific
   1-23  inquiry, facts, or data.
    2-1              (2)  "Perishable agricultural or aquacultural food
    2-2  product" means any food product of agriculture or aquaculture which
    2-3  is sold or distributed in a form that will perish or decay beyond
    2-4  marketability within a period of time.
    2-5        Sec. 85.03.  CAUSE OF ACTION; RECOVERY OF DAMAGES.  (a)  Any
    2-6  producer of perishable agricultural or aquacultural food products
    2-7  who suffers damage as a result of another person's disparagement of
    2-8  any such perishable agricultural or aquacultural food product has a
    2-9  cause of action for damages and any other appropriate relief in a
   2-10  court of competent jurisdiction.
   2-11        (b)  The disparagement of a perishable agricultural or
   2-12  aquacultural food product with intent to harm the producer or that
   2-13  product shall result in the disseminator of the disparaging
   2-14  information being liable to the producer for treble damages.
   2-15        Sec. 85.04.  LIMITATIONS OF ACTION.  Any civil action for
   2-16  damages for disparagement of perishable agricultural or
   2-17  aquacultural food products shall be commenced within three years
   2-18  after the cause of action accrues.
   2-19        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-20  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-21  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-22  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-23  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-24  and that this Act take effect and be in force according to its
   2-25  terms, and it is so enacted.