Bill not drafted by TLC or Senate E&E.
Line and page numbers may not match official copy.
By Junell H.B. No. 2779
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to requiring the office of the attorney general to defend
1-3 local community supervision and corrections departments in certain
1-4 suits brought against them.
1-5 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-6 SECTION 1. Section 76.006, Government Code is amended to
1-7 read as follows:
1-8 Sec. 76.006. Employee Status and Benefits. (a) Except as
1-9 provided by Subsection (c), department employees are not state
1-10 employees. The department shall contract with the most populous
1-11 county served by the department for insurance and retirement plans,
1-12 and the employees are governed by personnel policies and benefits
1-13 equal to personnel policies for and benefits of other employees of
1-14 that county.
1-15 (b) The judicial districts served by a department shall pay
1-16 the salaries of department employees.
1-17 (c) Department employees are state employees for the
1-18 purposes of Chapter 104, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, and
1-19 Chapter 501, Labor Code.
1-20 (d) The attorney general has the duty to defend a department
1-21 for suits for injunctive, declaratory, or monetary relief brought
1-22 against it for any action not covered by an indemnification policy,
1-23 except any action brought by the state or another political
1-24 subdivision. The attorney general shall not defend a department or
2-1 its employees in cases in which a person under supervision
2-2 challenges the fact or duration of the supervision. [A department
2-3 is a governmental unit for the purposes of Section 101.103(a),
2-4 Civil Practice and Remedies Code.]
2-5 (e) The department shall provide information requested by
2-6 the attorney general that the attorney general considers necessary
2-7 for the defense or prosecution of any case brought under this
2-8 section.
2-9 SECTION 2. CIVIL CAUSES OF ACTION. The changes in law made
2-10 by this Act apply only to a cause of action that accrues on or
2-11 after the effective date of this article. A cause of action that
2-12 accrues before the effective date of this article is governed by
2-13 the law in effect on the date the cause of action accrues, and that
2-14 law is continued in effect for this purpose.
2-15 SECTION 3. EFFECTIVE DATE. This Act takes effect September
2-16 1, 1997.
2-17 SECTION 4. EMERGENCY. The importance of this legislation
2-18 and the crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-19 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-20 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-21 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-22 and it is so enacted.