By Zbranek                                            H.B. No. 1478
       74R5630 DLF-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to transfer of certain civil actions.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subchapter D, Chapter 15, Civil Practice and
    1-5  Remedies Code, is amended by adding Section 15.0631 to read as
    1-6  follows:
    1-7        Sec. 15.0631.  INCONVENIENT FORUM.  (a)  A court of this
    1-8  state, on motion of a party, may transfer an action to recover
    1-9  damages for personal injury or wrongful death if venue is proper in
   1-10  another county in this state and:
   1-11              (1)  if each plaintiff in the action is not a resident
   1-12  of the county in which the court is located, the action, in the
   1-13  interest of justice, would be more properly heard in the other
   1-14  county; or
   1-15              (2)  if a plaintiff in the action is a resident of the
   1-16  county in which the court is located, the party seeking transfer of
   1-17  the action proves by a preponderance of the evidence that:
   1-18                    (A)  the action, in the interest of justice,
   1-19  would be more properly heard in the other county;
   1-20                    (B)  the other county would provide a place of
   1-21  trial that is fair, reasonable, and convenient to the parties;
   1-22                    (C)  maintenance of the action in the court in
   1-23  which the action was commenced would work a substantial injustice
   1-24  to the moving party and the balance of the private interests of all
    2-1  the parties and the public interest of the state predominates in
    2-2  favor of the action being brought in the other county; and
    2-3                    (D)  the transfer would not, in reasonable
    2-4  probability, result in unreasonable duplication or proliferation of
    2-5  litigation.
    2-6        (b)  A court may not transfer an action under Subsection
    2-7  (a)(2) if a party opposing the motion makes a prima facie showing
    2-8  that an act or omission that was a proximate or producing cause of
    2-9  the injury or death occurred in the county in which the action is
   2-10  being conducted.  The showing required by this subsection is
   2-11  satisfied if the moving party produces credible evidence in support
   2-12  of the motion.  The evidence need not be in admissible form and may
   2-13  include affidavits, deposition testimony, discovery responses, or
   2-14  other verified evidence.
   2-15        (c)  A motion for transfer under this section must be made in
   2-16  writing filed and served concurrently with or before the filing of
   2-17  the answer.
   2-18        (d)  In this section,  "resident" means a person who intends
   2-19  the specified county to be the person's permanent residence and who
   2-20  intends to return to the county despite temporary residence
   2-21  elsewhere or despite temporary absences, without regard to the
   2-22  person's country of citizenship or national origin.  The term does
   2-23  not include a person who adopts a residence in the county in bad
   2-24  faith to avoid the application of this section.
   2-25        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
   2-26  applies only to an action filed on or after that date.  An action
   2-27  filed before the effective date of this Act is governed by the law
    3-1  as it existed immediately before the effective date of this Act,
    3-2  and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
    3-3        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-4  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-5  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    3-6  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-7  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.