By Corte                                               H.B. No. 164
       74R1507 DLF-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to liability for injury arising from a motor vehicle
    1-3  accident to a driver who fails to maintain financial
    1-4  responsibility.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Article I, Texas Motor Vehicle
    1-7  Safety-Responsibility Act (Article 6701h, Vernon's Texas Civil
    1-8  Statutes), is amended by adding Section 1I to read as follows:
    1-9        Sec. 1I.  LIABILITY FOR INJURY TO OPERATOR WHO FAILS TO
   1-10  MAINTAIN FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY.  (a)  A person may not obtain
   1-11  noneconomic damages or exemplary damages in a civil action for
   1-12  bodily injury, death, or damage to or destruction of property
   1-13  arising out of a motor vehicle accident if, at the time of the
   1-14  accident, the person:
   1-15              (1)  is the operator of a motor vehicle involved in the
   1-16  accident; and
   1-17              (2)  is operating the motor vehicle in violation of
   1-18  Section 1A of this Act.
   1-19        (b)  Subsection (a) of this section applies to a claim for
   1-20  damages made by a person whose right to recovery derives from an
   1-21  injury to a person whose right to recovery of noneconomic and
   1-22  exemplary damages would be barred under Subsection (a), including a
   1-23  claim for wrongful death or for loss of consortium or
   1-24  companionship.
    2-1        (c)  In this section:
    2-2              (1)  "Noneconomic damages" means damages to compensate
    2-3  the operator for a loss other than a pecuniary loss, including
    2-4  damages for pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss associated
    2-5  with disfigurement, and loss of companionship or consortium.
    2-6              (2)  "Exemplary damages"  has the meaning assigned by
    2-7  Section 41.001, Civil Practice and Remedies Code.
    2-8        SECTION 2.  This Act applies only to a cause of action that
    2-9  accrues on or after the effective date of this Act.  An action that
   2-10  accrued before the effective date of this Act is governed by the
   2-11  law applicable to the action immediately before the effective date
   2-12  of this Act, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
   2-13        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-14  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-15  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-16  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-17  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-18  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-19  passage, and it is so enacted.