By Hochberg                                            H.B. No. 300
          Substitute the following for H.B. No. 300:
          By Bosse                                           C.S.H.B. No. 300
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the release of the transferor of a used or secondhand
    1-3  motor vehicle from certain civil and criminal consequences arising
    1-4  out of the use, operation, or abandonment of the vehicle.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Section 3, Article 6687-5, Revised Statutes, is
    1-7  amended to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 3.  (a)  On receipt of written notice of transfer from
    1-9  the transferor of a motor vehicle, the Texas <State> Department of
   1-10  <Highways and Public> Transportation shall mark its motor vehicle
   1-11  records to indicate the transfer.
   1-12        (b)  The department may design the written notice of transfer
   1-13  to be part of the certificate of title for the vehicle.  The form
   1-14  shall be provided by the department and must include a place for
   1-15  the transferor to state:
   1-16              (1)  the vehicle identification number for the vehicle;
   1-17              (2)  the number of the license plate issued to the
   1-18  vehicle, if any;
   1-19              (3)  the full name and address of the transferor;
   1-20              (4)  the full name and address of the transferee;
   1-21              (5)  the date the transferor delivered possession of
   1-22  the vehicle to the transferee;
   1-23              (6)  the signature of the transferor; and
   1-24              (7)  the date the transferor signed the form.
    2-1        (c)  After the date of the transfer of the vehicle shown on
    2-2  the records of the department, the transferee of the vehicle shown
    2-3  on the records is rebuttably presumed to be:
    2-4              (1)  the owner of the vehicle; and
    2-5              (2)  subject to civil and criminal liability arising
    2-6  out of the use, operation, or abandonment of the vehicle as the
    2-7  owner of the vehicle.
    2-8        (d)  The department may:
    2-9              (1)  adopt rules to implement this section; and
   2-10              (2)  adopt a fee for filing a notice of transfer under
   2-11  this section in an amount that may not exceed the lesser of the
   2-12  actual cost to the department of implementing this section or $5.
   2-13        (e)  Nothing in this section imposes or establishes civil or
   2-14  criminal liability on the owner of a motor vehicle who transfers
   2-15  ownership of the vehicle but does not make the disclosure of the
   2-16  transfer to the department.
   2-17        (f)  This section does not require the department to issue a
   2-18  title to the transferee.  A <However, a> title may not be issued
   2-19  until the transferee applies to the designated agent as provided by
   2-20  the Certificate of Title Act (Article 6687-1, Vernon's Texas Civil
   2-21  Statutes).
   2-22        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-23  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-24  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-25  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-26  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.