H.B. No. 2980
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to coverage for district judges and volunteer fire
1-3 departments under the County Government Risk Management Pool.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 119.001, Local Government Code, is
1-6 amended by adding Subdivision (5) to read as follows:
1-7 (5) "Volunteer fire department" means a fire
1-8 department that is operated on a not-for-profit basis.
1-9 SECTION 2. Chapter 119, Local Government Code, is amended by
1-10 adding Sections 119.010 and 119.011 to read as follows:
1-11 Sec. 119.010. CERTAIN COVERAGE AUTHORIZED; DISTRICT JUDGES.
1-12 The pool may provide coverage against liability for the acts or
1-13 omissions of a district judge whose judicial district is located,
1-14 in whole or in part, within the geographic boundaries of a county
1-15 participating in the pool that arise in the course and scope of the
1-16 judge's official duties as a judge. A county participating in the
1-17 pool, a district judge from personal funds, or both the county and
1-18 the judge, may pay the additional cost of this coverage.
1-19 Sec. 119.011. CERTAIN COVERAGE AUTHORIZED; VOLUNTEER FIRE
1-20 DEPARTMENTS. The pool may provide coverage against liability for
1-21 the acts or omissions of:
1-22 (1) a volunteer fire department that contracts with a
1-23 county participating in the pool for the provision of fire
2-1 protection or fire-fighting equipment under Subchapter A, Chapter
2-2 352;
2-3 (2) a volunteer for a fire department described by
2-4 Subdivision (1), to the extent the acts or omissions arise in the
2-5 course and scope of the volunteer's activities as a volunteer for
2-6 the fire department; and
2-7 (3) a person described by Section 352.004(b).
2-8 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-9 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-10 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-11 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-12 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-13 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-14 passage, and it is so enacted.