By Lindsay                                       S.B. No. 692

      75R6489 ESH-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to civil actions relating to municipal annexation.

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

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 43, Local Government Code,

 1-5     is amended by adding Section 43.058 to read as follows:

 1-6           Sec. 43.058.  CIVIL ACTIONS RELATING TO ANNEXATION.  (a)  A

 1-7     civil action relating to annexation proceedings must be brought in

 1-8     district court.

 1-9           (b)  The presiding judge of the administrative judicial

1-10     region that includes the county in which a civil action relating to

1-11     annexation proceedings is brought shall assign a judge to hear the

1-12     action as provided by Subchapter C, Chapter 74, Government Code.

1-13     The presiding judge may not assign a retired or former judge who

1-14     resides in the municipality that institutes the annexation

1-15     proceedings or the area that is the subject of the annexation

1-16     proceedings.  If a party timely objects to the assigned judge as

1-17     provided by Section 74.053, Government Code, the presiding judge

1-18     shall assign a new judge.

1-19           (c)  Unless the parties agree otherwise, each hearing in a

1-20     civil suit relating to annexation proceedings must be held in the

1-21     municipality that institutes the annexation proceedings.

1-22           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

1-23           SECTION 3.  Section 43.058, Local Government Code, applies

1-24     only to a civil action relating to municipal annexation that is

 2-1     filed on or after 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.