By: Wentworth S.B. No. 1381
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to the validity of arbitration agreements.
1-2 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-3 SECTION 1. Article 224, revised statutes, is amended as
1-4 follows:
1-5 A written agreement to submit any existing controversy to
1-6 arbitration or a provision in a written contract to submit to
1-7 arbitration any controversy thereafter arising between the parties
1-8 is valid, enforceable and irrevocable, save upon such grounds as
1-9 exist at law or in the equity for the revocation of any contract.
1-10 A court shall refuse to enforce an agreement or contract provision
1-11 to submit a controversy to arbitration if the court finds it was
1-12 unconscionable at the time the agreement or contract was made.
1-13 Provided, however, that none of the provisions of this Act shall
1-14 apply to:
1-15 (a) any collective bargaining agreement between an employer
1-16 and a labor union;
1-17 <(b) any contract for the acquisition by an individual
1-18 person or persons (as distinguished from a corporation, trust,
1-19 partnership, association, or other legal entity) of real or
1-20 personal property, or services, or money or credit where the total
1-21 consideration therefor to be paid or furnished by the individual is
1-22 $50,000 of less, unless said individual and the other party or
1-23 parties agree in writing to submit to arbitration and such
2-1 agreement is signed by the parties to such agreement and their
2-2 attorneys;>
2-3 (c) any claim for personal injury except upon the advice of
2-4 counsel to both parties as evidenced by a written agreement signed
2-5 by counsel to both parties. A claim for workers' compensation
2-6 shall not be submitted to arbitration under this Act.
2-7 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the
2-8 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-9 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-10 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-11 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-12 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-13 passage, and it is so enacted.