By:  Brown                                            S.B. No. 1928

         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 alternative pleading asserting a claim to property or

 1-2     seeking to condemn property.

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

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 21.017, Property Code, is amended to read

 1-5     as follows:

 1-6           Sec. 21.017.  ALTERNATIVE PLEADING TO CONDEMN.  (a)  This

 1-7     state, a political subdivision of this state, a person, an

 1-8     association of persons, or a corporation that is a party to a suit

 1-9     covered by Section 21.003 of the code by petition, cross-bill, or

1-10     plea of intervention may assert a claim to the property or,

1-11     alternatively, seek to condemn the property.

1-12           (b)  A plea under this section is not an admission of an

1-13     adverse party's title to the property in controversy.

1-14           (c)  A party who pleads in the alternative may not enter or

1-15     use the property that is the subject of the proceeding without

1-16     written permission of the adverse party until the court determines

1-17     that the party who pleads in the alternative has acquired the

1-18     rights necessary to enter on and use the property for a public

1-19     purpose.

1-20           (d)  If the court determines that a party described by

1-21     Subsection (a) does not own the property, the court shall award the

 2-1     property owner:

 2-2                 (1)  any damages caused by the party's wrongful

 2-3     possession and use of the property; and

 2-4                 (2)  all reasonable expenses, including reasonable and

 2-5     necessary attorney's fees.

 2-6           (e)  This section does not apply to a party as defined in

 2-7     subsection (a) that has acquired an interest in one's property, but

 2-8     has in good faith mislocated the improvement it has constructed on

 2-9     the property outside the boundaries of the property it has

2-10     acquired.

2-11           SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies to any

2-12     pending suit on the effective date of this Act and any suit filed

2-13     after the effective date of this Act.

2-14           SECTION 3.  EMERGENCY.  The importance of this legislation

2-15     and the crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-16     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-17     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-18     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-19     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-20     passage, and it is so enacted.