By:  Lindsay                                          S.B. No. 1604

         Line and page numbers may not match official copy.

         Bill not drafted by TLC or Senate E&E.

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to indemnity provisions in certain mineral agreements.

 1-2           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-3           SECTION 1.  Section 127.004, Civil Practice and Remedies Code

 1-4     is amended to read as follows:

 1-5           Sec. 127.004.  Exclusions.  This chapter does not apply to

 1-6     loss or liability for damages arising from:

 1-7                 (1)  personal injury, death, or property injury that

 1-8     results from radioactivity;

 1-9                 (2)  property injury that results from pollution,

1-10     including cleanup and control of the pollutant;

1-11                 (3)  property injury that results from reservoir or

1-12     underground damage, including loss of oil, gas, other mineral

1-13     substance, or water or the well bore itself;

1-14                 (4)  personal injury, death, or property injury that

1-15     results from the performance of services to control a wild well to

1-16     protect the safety of the general public or to prevent depletion of

1-17     vital natural resources; or

1-18                 (5)  cost of control of a wild well, underground or

1-19     above the surface, or;

1-20                 (6)  covenants, promises, agreements and understandings

1-21     to indemnify made by an indemnitor having assets of more than

 2-1     $25,000,000 (twenty-five million dollars) at the end of its last

 2-2     fiscal year preceding the making of the covenant, promise,

 2-3     agreement or understanding.

 2-4           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, with

 2-5     respect to covenants, promises, agreements and understandings made

 2-6     after that date.

 2-7           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-8     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-9     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-10     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-11     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.