1-1  By:  Lucio                                             S.B. No. 811
    1-2        (In the Senate - Filed February 28, 1995; March 1, 1995, read
    1-3  first time and referred to Committee on Natural Resources;
    1-4  March 15, 1995, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 7,
    1-5  Nays 1; March 15, 1995, sent to printer.)
    1-6                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-7                                AN ACT
    1-8  relating to liability for false disparagement of perishable food
    1-9  products.
   1-10        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-11        SECTION 1.  Title 4, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, is
   1-12  amended by adding Chapter 96 to read as follows:
   1-13     CHAPTER 96.  FALSE DISPARAGEMENT OF PERISHABLE FOOD PRODUCTS
   1-14        Sec. 96.001.  DEFINITION.  In this chapter, "perishable food
   1-15  product" means a food product of agriculture or aquaculture that is
   1-16  sold or distributed in a form that will perish or decay beyond
   1-17  marketability within a limited period of time.
   1-18        Sec. 96.002.  LIABILITY.  (a)  A person is liable as provided
   1-19  by Subsection (b) if:
   1-20              (1)  the person disseminates in any manner information
   1-21  relating to a perishable food product to the public;
   1-22              (2)  the person knows the information is false; and
   1-23              (3)  the information states or implies that the
   1-24  perishable food product is not safe for consumption by the public.
   1-25        (b)  A person who is liable under Subsection (a) is liable to
   1-26  the producer of the perishable food product for damages and any
   1-27  other appropriate relief arising from the person's dissemination of
   1-28  the information.
   1-29        Sec. 96.003.  PROOF.  (a)  The trier of fact shall presume
   1-30  that a person who disseminates the information described by Section
   1-31  96.002(a)(3) knows the information is false if it is shown that, at
   1-32  the time the information was disseminated, the information was not
   1-33  based on reasonable and reliable scientific inquiry, facts, or
   1-34  data.
   1-35        (b)  The presumption established by this section may be
   1-36  rebutted by appropriate evidence.
   1-37        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
   1-38  applies only to information disseminated on or after that date.
   1-39        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-40  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-41  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-42  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-43  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
   1-44                               * * * * *