By Clark H.B. No. 2144
75R7459 JBN-F
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the liability of certain persons appointed under a
1-3 child advocacy program.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Subchapter G, Chapter 264, Family Code, is
1-6 amended by adding Section 264.613 to read as follows:
1-7 Sec. 264.613. IMMUNITY. (a) Except as provided by
1-8 Subsection (b), an individual serving as a volunteer for a
1-9 volunteer advocate program that has contracted with the attorney
1-10 general under this subchapter and who is appointed as a volunteer
1-11 advocate by a court is immune from civil liability for any act or
1-12 omission resulting in property damage, death, or personal injury of
1-13 any kind if the individual was acting in the course and scope of
1-14 the duties or functions as a court-appointed volunteer advocate.
1-15 (b) A volunteer of a charitable organization is liable to a
1-16 person for property damage, death, or personal injury to the person
1-17 or his property proximately caused by any act or omission arising
1-18 from the operation or use of any motor-driven equipment, including
1-19 an airplane, to the extent insurance coverage is required by
1-20 Subchapter C, Chapter 601, Transportation Code, and to the extent
1-21 of any existing insurance coverage applicable to the act or
1-22 omission.
1-23 SECTION 2. Section 107.031(c), Family Code, is amended to
1-24 read as follows:
2-1 (c) A [court-appointed volunteer, a] board member or
2-2 employee of a volunteer advocate charitable organization[,] or a
2-3 member of an administrative review board is not liable for civil
2-4 damages for a recommendation made or opinion rendered while serving
2-5 or having served as a [court-appointed volunteer,] board member or
2-6 employee of a volunteer advocate charitable organization[,] or
2-7 member of an administrative review board under this section unless
2-8 the act or failure to act is wilfully wrongful, committed with
2-9 conscious indifference or reckless disregard for the safety of
2-10 another, committed in bad faith or with malice, or is grossly
2-11 negligent.
2-12 SECTION 3. This Act applies to an act or omission of an
2-13 individual serving as a court-appointed child advocate under a
2-14 child advocate program under Subchapter G, Chapter 264, Family
2-15 Code, that occurs on or after the effective date of this Act. The
2-16 law in effect immediately before the effective date of this Act
2-17 applies to acts or omissions that occur before the effective date
2-18 of this Act and that former law is continued in effect for the
2-19 purpose of determining the liability for those acts or omissions.
2-20 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
2-21 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-22 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-23 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-24 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-25 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-26 passage, and it is so enacted.