By Puente                                              H.B. No. 249
         76R521 AJA-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to certain requirements imposed by certain insurers as a
 1-3     condition of settlement of a motor vehicle insurance claim.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 5, Insurance Code, is
 1-6     amended by adding Article 5.06-7 to read as follows:
 1-7           Art. 5.06-7.  SETTLEMENT OF CLAIM; REQUIRED STATEMENT OF
 1-8     FACTS.  (a)  In this article, "insurer" means an insurance company,
 1-9     interinsurance exchange, mutual, capital stock company, fraternal
1-10     benefit society, local mutual aid association, county mutual,
1-11     reciprocal, association, Lloyd's plan, or other entity writing
1-12     motor vehicle insurance in this state.  The term includes an
1-13     affiliate, as defined by Section 2, Article 21.49-1, of this code.
1-14           (b)  An insurer may not require a third party claimant to
1-15     give a statement of the facts relating to a motor vehicle insurance
1-16     claim as a condition of  determining whether to pay or settle the
1-17     claim unless the third party claimant is given an opportunity to
1-18     obtain a statement in a similar format from the insurer's insured.
1-19     This article does not apply if the insured is unable to give a
1-20     statement for a reason outside the insurer's control.
1-21           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-22     applies only to a motor vehicle insurance claim that accrues on or
1-23     after the effective date of this Act.  A claim that accrues before
1-24     the effective date of this Act is governed by the law as it existed
 2-1     immediately before the effective date of this Act, and that law is
 2-2     continued in effect for that purpose.
 2-3           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-4     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-5     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-6     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-7     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.