By:  Leedom                                            S.B. No. 415
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to a county or precinct officer who overcharges a person a
    1-2  fee.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 118.801, Local Government Code, is
    1-5  amended to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 118.801.  Overcharging of Fees; Penalty.  (a)  An
    1-7  officer named in this chapter who, in bad faith, demands and
    1-8  receives a higher fee than authorized under this chapter or a fee
    1-9  that is not authorized under this chapter is liable to the
   1-10  aggrieved person for four times the amount unlawfully demanded and
   1-11  received.
   1-12        (b)  An officer who, in good faith, demands and receives a
   1-13  higher fee than authorized or a fee not authorized under this
   1-14  chapter is liable to the aggrieved person:
   1-15              (1)  for the difference between the amount demanded and
   1-16  received and the amount of the fee authorized under this chapter;
   1-17  or
   1-18              (2)  in a suit to recover the difference under
   1-19  Subdivision (1), if the officer has failed to return the difference
   1-20  not later than the 30th day after the date an aggrieved person has
   1-21  made a written demand for the difference, for:
   1-22                    (A)  the difference between the amount demanded
   1-23  and received and the amount of the fee authorized under this
   1-24  chapter;
    2-1                    (B)  reasonable and necessary attorney's fees;
    2-2  and
    2-3                    (C)  prejudgment and postjudgment interest
    2-4  determined in the same manner in which interest is determined under
    2-5  Sections 2 and 7, Article 1.05, Title 79, Revised Statutes (Article
    2-6  5069-1.05, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes).
    2-7        (c)  The demand for and receipt of a fee authorized by the
    2-8  legislature that is later determined by a court of competent
    2-9  jurisdiction to be unlawful is considered to be a good faith action
   2-10  by the officer.
   2-11        (d)  In this section, "bad faith" includes a demand that an
   2-12  officer makes with the knowledge that a fee is not authorized by
   2-13  law.
   2-14        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
   2-15  applies only to a fee demanded and received on or after that date.
   2-16  A fee that was demanded and received before the effective date of
   2-17  this Act is governed by the law in effect when the fee was demanded
   2-18  and received, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
   2-19        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-20  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-21  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-22  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-23  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.