By:  Brown, Wentworth                         S.B. No. 302

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to the prosecution of certain commercial bailees for the

 1-2     offense of misapplication of fiduciary property.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subdivision (1), Subsection (a), Section 32.45,

 1-5     Penal Code, is amended to read as follows:

 1-6                 (1)  "Fiduciary" includes:

 1-7                       (A)  trustee, guardian, administrator, executor,

 1-8     conservator, and receiver;

 1-9                       (B)  any other person acting in a fiduciary

1-10     capacity, but not a commercial bailee unless the commercial bailee

1-11     is a party in a motor fuel sales agreement with a distributor or

1-12     supplier, as those terms are defined by Section 153.001, Tax Code;

1-13     and

1-14                       (C)  an officer, manager, employee, or agent

1-15     carrying on fiduciary functions on behalf of a fiduciary.

1-16           SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies

1-17     only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this

1-18     Act.  For purposes of this section, an offense is committed before

1-19     the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs

1-20     before the effective date.

1-21           (b)  An offense committed before the effective date of this

1-22     Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,

1-23     and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.

 2-1           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

 2-2           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-3     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-4     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-5     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-6     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.