By Combs                                              H.B. No. 2279
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to a property owner's or contractor's liability for
    1-3  certain claims.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Amend Title 4, Civil Practice and Remedies Code,
    1-6  by adding a new Chapter 95 to read as follows:
    1-7        CHAPTER 95.  PROPERTY OWNER'S AND CONTRACTOR'S LIABILITY.
    1-8        Sec. 95.001.  DEFINITIONS.  In this chapter:
    1-9              (1)  "Claim" means a claim for damages caused by
   1-10  negligence or gross negligence, including a counterclaim,
   1-11  crossclaim, or third-party claim.
   1-12              (2)  "Claimant" means a party making a claim subject to
   1-13  this chapter.
   1-14              (3)  "Premises contractor" means any contractor  who
   1-15  agrees in writing to perform, supervise, or subcontract work  for a
   1-16  property owner.  The term includes any subcontractor who agrees in
   1-17  writing with a contractor or another subcontractor to perform all
   1-18  or part of such work, or who subcontracts all or part of such work
   1-19  to another subcontractor.
   1-20              (4)  "Property owner" means a person who owns, leases,
   1-21  controls, manages, operates, or maintains real property.
   1-22              (5)  "Workers' compensation insurance coverage" means
   1-23  workers' compensation insurance coverage as defined in Section
    2-1  401.011, Labor Code.
    2-2        Sec. 95.002.  THIRD-PARTY LIABILITY.  (a)  Notwithstanding
    2-3  the provisions of Section 417.001(a), Labor Code, a property owner
    2-4  or premises contractor is not liable for a claim if:
    2-5              (1)  the claimant is an employee, a legal beneficiary
    2-6  of an employee, or any other person asserting a claim based on the
    2-7  injury or death of an employee  of a person or entity providing
    2-8  services, including equipment and material incidental to such
    2-9  services, under contract with a property owner or premises
   2-10  contractor;
   2-11              (2)  The claimant is an employee who is covered by
   2-12  workers' compensation insurance coverage, a legal beneficiary of an
   2-13  employee who is covered by workers' compensation insurance
   2-14  coverage, or any other person asserting a claim based on the injury
   2-15  or death of an employee who is covered by workers' compensation
   2-16  insurance coverage; and
   2-17              (3)  the claimant or employee, a legal beneficiary of
   2-18  an employee, or any other person asserting a claim based on the
   2-19  injury or death of an employee has received or is eligible to
   2-20  receive workers' compensation benefits for the death of or
   2-21  work-related injury sustained by the employee.
   2-22        (b)  This section does not prohibit the recovery of exemplary
   2-23  damages by the surviving spouse or heirs of the body of a deceased
   2-24  employee whose death was caused by an intentional act or omission
   2-25  of the employer, property owner, or premises contractor or by the
    3-1  employer's, property owner's, or premises contractor's gross
    3-2  negligence.
    3-3        SECTION 2.  EFFECTIVE DATE.  This Act takes effect September
    3-4  1, 1995.  This Act applies to a suit filed on or after the
    3-5  effective date of this Act.  A suit filed before the effective date
    3-6  of this Act is governed by the law applicable to the action
    3-7  immediately before the effective date of this Act, and that law is
    3-8  continued in effect for that purpose.
    3-9        SECTION 3.  EMERGENCY.  The importance of this legislation
   3-10  and the crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   3-11  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   3-12  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   3-13  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.