By:  Turner                                           S.B. No. 1581
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the recovery of attorney's fees in certain proceedings
    1-2  under the Uniform Declaratory Judgment Act.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 37.009, Civil Practice and Remedies Code,
    1-5  is amended to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 37.009.  Costs.  (a)  Except as provided by Subsection
    1-7  (c), in <In> any proceeding under this chapter, the court may award
    1-8  costs and reasonable and necessary attorney's fees as are equitable
    1-9  and just.
   1-10        (b)  In determining the equity and justice of awarding
   1-11  attorney's fees in an action involving a governmental unit, as that
   1-12  term is defined in Section 101.001, and, when applicable, the
   1-13  amount of such an award, the court shall consider, among other
   1-14  relevant factors, the financial impact of an award on the party
   1-15  against which fees would be assessed.
   1-16        (c)  This section does not authorize an award of costs or
   1-17  attorney's fees of any amount against the state in an action:
   1-18              (1)  involving the constitutionality of a statute,
   1-19  ordinance, or franchise in which the attorney general is entitled
   1-20  to be heard under Section 37.006(b);
   1-21              (2)  in which the attorney general intervenes for the
   1-22  sole purpose of defending the constitutionality of a statute,
   1-23  ordinance, or franchise; and
    2-1              (3)  in which the state is not otherwise made a party.
    2-2        SECTION 2.  If any section, sentence, clause, or part of this
    2-3  Act shall, for any reason, be held invalid, such invalidity shall
    2-4  not affect the remaining portions of the Act, and it is hereby
    2-5  declared to be the intention of this legislature to have passed
    2-6  each section, sentence, clause, or part irrespective of the fact
    2-7  that any other section, sentence, clause, or part may be declared
    2-8  invalid.
    2-9        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-10  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-11  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-12  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-13  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-14  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-15  passage, and it is so enacted.