By Hilbert                                            H.B. No. 3338

         Substitute the following for H.B. No. 3338:

         By Turner of Coleman                              C.S.H.B. No. 3338

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to alternative pleading asserting a claim to property or

 1-3     seeking to condemn property.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 21.017, Property Code, is amended to read

 1-6     as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 21.017.  Alternative Pleading To Condemn.  (a)  This

 1-8     state, a political subdivision of this state, a person, an

 1-9     association of persons, or a corporation that is a party to a suit

1-10     covered by Section 21.003 of the code by petition, cross-bill, or

1-11     plea of intervention may assert a claim to the property or,

1-12     alternatively, seek to condemn the property.

1-13           (b)  A plea under this section is not an admission of an

1-14     adverse party's title to the property in controversy.

1-15           (c)  A party who pleads in the alternative may not enter or

1-16     use the property that is the subject of the proceeding without

1-17     written permission of the adverse party until the court determines

1-18     that the party who pleads in the alternative has acquired the

1-19     rights necessary to enter on and use the property for a public

1-20     purpose.

1-21           (d)  If the court determines that a party described by

1-22     Subsection (a) does not own the property, the court shall award the

1-23     property owner:

1-24                 (1)  any damages caused by the party's wrongful

 2-1     possession and use of the property; and

 2-2                 (2)  all reasonable expenses, including reasonable and

 2-3     necessary attorney's fees.

 2-4           (e)  This section does not apply to a party as defined in

 2-5     subsection (a) that has acquired an interest in one's property, but

 2-6     has in good faith mislocated the improvement it has constructed on

 2-7     the property outside the boundaries of the property it has

 2-8     acquired.

 2-9           SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies to any

2-10     pending suit on the effective date of this Act and any suit filed

2-11     after the effective date of this Act.

2-12           SECTION 3.  EMERGENCY.  The importance of this legislation

2-13     and the crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-14     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-15     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-16     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-17     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-18     passage, and it is so enacted.