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.