1-1        By:  Wentworth                                  S.B. No. 1381
    1-2        (In the Senate - Filed March 13, 1995; March 20, 1995, read
    1-3  first time and referred to Committee on Jurisprudence;
    1-4  April 19, 1995, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
    1-5  Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 6, Nays 0; April 19, 1995,
    1-6  sent to printer.)
    1-7  COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 1381               By:  Wentworth
    1-8                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-9                                AN ACT
   1-10  relating to the application of certain statutes providing for
   1-11  arbitration.
   1-12        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-13        SECTION 1.  Article 224, Revised Statutes, is amended to read
   1-14  as follows:
   1-15        Art. 224.  Validity of arbitration agreements.  A written
   1-16  agreement to submit any existing controversy to arbitration or a
   1-17  provision in a written contract to submit to arbitration any
   1-18  controversy thereafter arising between the parties is valid,
   1-19  enforceable and irrevocable, save upon such grounds as exist at law
   1-20  or in equity for the revocation of any contract.  A court shall
   1-21  refuse to enforce an agreement or contract provision to submit a
   1-22  controversy to arbitration if the court finds it was unconscionable
   1-23  at the time the agreement or contract was made.  Provided, however,
   1-24  that none of the provisions of this Act shall apply to:
   1-25        (a)  any collective bargaining agreement between an employer
   1-26  and a labor union;
   1-27        (b)  <any contract for the acquisition by an individual
   1-28  person or persons (as distinguished from a corporation, trust,
   1-29  partnership, association, or other legal entity) of real or
   1-30  personal property, or services, or money or credit where the total
   1-31  consideration therefor to be paid or furnished by the individual is
   1-32  $50,000 or less, unless said individual and the other party or
   1-33  parties agree in writing to submit to arbitration and such written
   1-34  agreement is signed by the parties to such agreement and their
   1-35  attorneys;>
   1-36        <(c)>  any claim for personal injury except upon the advice
   1-37  of counsel to both parties as evidenced by a written agreement
   1-38  signed by counsel to both parties; or
   1-39        (c)  a<.  A> claim for workers' compensation <shall not be
   1-40  submitted to arbitration under this Act>.
   1-41        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
   1-42  applies only to a controversy arising under a contract entered into
   1-43  on or after that date.  A controversy arising under a contract
   1-44  entered into before the effective date of this Act is governed by
   1-45  the law applicable to the controversy immediately before the
   1-46  effective date of this Act, and that law is continued in effect for
   1-47  that purpose.
   1-48        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-49  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-50  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-51  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-52  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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