By Counts                                             H.B. No. 1319
       74R5768 DLF-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to false evidence of financial responsibility under the
    1-3  Texas Motor Vehicle Safety-Responsibility Act; imposing a criminal
    1-4  penalty.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Article V, Texas Motor Vehicle
    1-7  Safety-Responsibility Act (Article 6701h, Vernon's Texas Civil
    1-8  Statutes), is amended by adding Section 32A to read as follows:
    1-9        Sec. 32A.  FALSE EVIDENCE OF FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY.  (a)
   1-10  A person commits an offense if the person:
   1-11              (1)  makes, presents, or uses a false evidence of
   1-12  financial responsibility with knowledge of its falsity and with
   1-13  intent that it be taken as a genuine evidence of financial
   1-14  responsibility;
   1-15              (2)  possesses, sells, or offers to sell a false
   1-16  evidence of financial responsibility with knowledge of its falsity;
   1-17              (3)  possesses a blank evidence of financial
   1-18  responsibility and is not authorized to issue that evidence of
   1-19  financial responsibility; or
   1-20              (4)  sells or offers to sell a blank evidence of
   1-21  financial responsibility.
   1-22        (b)  It is a defense to prosecution under Subsection (a)(3)
   1-23  or (a)(4) that the person is acting in the ordinary course of
   1-24  business of supplying blank forms of evidence of responsibility to
    2-1  a person who is authorized to issue the evidence of responsibility.
    2-2        (c)  An offense under this section is a felony of the third
    2-3  degree, unless the actor's intent is to defraud or harm another, in
    2-4  which event the offense is a felony of the second degree.
    2-5        (d)  A person is presumed to intend to defraud or harm
    2-6  another if the person acts with respect to two or more of the same
    2-7  type of evidences of financial responsibility or blank evidences of
    2-8  responsibility.
    2-9        (e)  In this section, "evidence of financial responsibility"
   2-10  means:
   2-11              (1)  a motor vehicle liability insurance policy or a
   2-12  copy of a motor vehicle liability insurance policy;
   2-13              (2)  a standard proof of motor vehicle liability
   2-14  insurance form;
   2-15              (3)  a motor vehicle liability insurance binder; or
   2-16              (4)  a certificate or copy of a certificate issued
   2-17  under Section 1A(b)(6), 19, 20, 24, 25, or 34 of this Act.
   2-18        SECTION 2.  Section 32(b), Texas Motor Vehicle
   2-19  Safety-Responsibility Act (Article 6701h, Vernon's Texas Civil
   2-20  Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
   2-21        (b)  Any person who gives information required in a report or
   2-22  otherwise as provided for in Section 4, knowing or having reason to
   2-23  believe that such information is false, <or who shall forge or,
   2-24  without authority, sign any evidence of proof of financial
   2-25  responsibility, or who files or offers for filing any such evidence
   2-26  of proof knowing or having reason to believe that it is forged or
   2-27  signed without authority,> shall be fined not more than One
    3-1  Thousand Dollars ($1,000) or imprisoned for not more than one year,
    3-2  or both.
    3-3        SECTION 3.  The following provisions are repealed:
    3-4              (1)  Section 1B(d), Texas Motor Vehicle
    3-5  Safety-Responsibility Act (Article 6701h, Vernon's Texas Civil
    3-6  Statutes); and
    3-7              (2)  Section 19(c), Texas Motor Vehicle
    3-8  Safety-Responsibility Act (Article 6701h, Vernon's Texas Civil
    3-9  Statutes).
   3-10        SECTION 4.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
   3-11  only to the punishment for an offense committed on or after the
   3-12  effective date of this Act.  For purposes of this section, an
   3-13  offense is committed before the effective date of this Act if any
   3-14  element of the offense occurs before the effective date.
   3-15        (b)  An offense committed before the effective date of this
   3-16  Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,
   3-17  and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
   3-18        SECTION 5.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   3-19        SECTION 6.  The importance of this legislation and the
   3-20  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   3-21  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   3-22  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   3-23  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.