By Hudson                                             H.B. No. 2105
       74R6988 DWS-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to a refund of money deposited for a layaway purchase.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subchapter D, Chapter 35, Business & Commerce
    1-5  Code, is amended by adding Section 35.55 to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 35.55.  LAYAWAY PURCHASE.  (a) In this section:
    1-7              (1)  "Layaway transaction" means a transaction under
    1-8  which a merchant, in return for a deposit and one or more
    1-9  additional payments, promises a customer to hold an item of goods
   1-10  for the customer until full payment for the item is made or until a
   1-11  specified date if full payment is not made.
   1-12              (2)  "Merchant" means a person in the business of
   1-13  selling goods for personal, family, or household use.
   1-14        (b)  On receiving notice from a customer under a layaway
   1-15  transaction that the customer intends not to complete the
   1-16  transaction, the merchant under the transaction shall promptly
   1-17  refund to the customer all amounts paid by the customer under the
   1-18  layaway transaction.
   1-19        (c)  The requirements of this section may not be waived by
   1-20  agreement.
   1-21        SECTION 2.  This Act applies only to a layaway transaction
   1-22  entered into on or after the effective date of this Act.
   1-23        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   1-24        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-1  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-2  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-3  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-4  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.