1-1  By:  Moffat (Senate Sponsor - Harris)                 H.B. No. 2330
    1-2        (In the Senate - Received from the House May 15, 1995;
    1-3  May 16, 1995, read first time and referred to Committee on
    1-4  Jurisprudence; May 24, 1995, reported favorably by the following
    1-5  vote:  Yeas 7, Nays 0; May 24, 1995, sent to printer.)
    1-6                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-7                                AN ACT
    1-8  relating to the statute of limitations for personal injury or death
    1-9  as a result of sexual assault.
   1-10        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-11        SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 16, Civil Practice and
   1-12  Remedies Code, is amended by adding Section 16.0045 to read as
   1-13  follows:
   1-14        Sec. 16.0045.  FIVE-YEAR LIMITATIONS PERIOD.  (a)  A person
   1-15  must bring suit for personal injury not later than five years after
   1-16  the day the cause of action accrues if the injury arises as a
   1-17  result of conduct that violates:
   1-18              (1)  Section 22.011, Penal Code (sexual assault); or
   1-19              (2)  Section 22.021, Penal Code (aggravated sexual
   1-20  assault).
   1-21        (b)  In an action for injury resulting in death arising as a
   1-22  result of conduct described by Subsection (a), the cause of action
   1-23  accrues on the death of the injured person.
   1-24        (c)  The limitations period under this section is tolled for
   1-25  a suit on the filing of a petition by any person in an appropriate
   1-26  court alleging that the identity of the defendant in the suit is
   1-27  unknown and designating the unknown defendant as "John or Jane
   1-28  Doe."  The person filing the petition shall proceed with due
   1-29  diligence to discover the identity of the defendant and amend the
   1-30  petition by substituting the real name of the defendant for "John
   1-31  or Jane Doe" not later than the 30th day after the date that the
   1-32  defendant is identified to the plaintiff.  The limitations period
   1-33  begins running again on the date that the petition is amended.
   1-34        SECTION 2.  Section 16.003(a), Civil Practice and Remedies
   1-35  Code, is amended to read as follows:
   1-36        (a)  Except as provided by Section 16.0045, a <A> person must
   1-37  bring suit for trespass for injury to the estate or to the property
   1-38  of another, conversion of personal property, taking or detaining
   1-39  the personal property of another, personal injury, forcible entry
   1-40  and detainer, and forcible detainer not later than two years after
   1-41  the day the cause of action accrues.
   1-42        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-43  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-44  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-45  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-46  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-47  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-48  passage, and it is so enacted.
   1-49                               * * * * *