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 * * * * *