By Turner of Coleman H.B. No. 427
76R6899 PAM-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to suits to establish county boundaries.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Section 72.009(b), Local Government Code, is
1-5 amended to read as follows:
1-6 (b) The district court has jurisdiction to determine where
1-7 the boundary line is located and may order the line to be re-marked
1-8 and resurveyed. The line established by the district court shall
1-9 be treated as the true boundary between the counties unless the
1-10 court determines that the line in question was established under
1-11 prior law. A party to the suit may file a motion for summary
1-12 judgment to declare the true boundary between the counties if [If
1-13 the district court determines that] the boundary line has been
1-14 established under prior law for at least 25 years. If the evidence
1-15 presented in the motion for summary judgment establishes that the
1-16 boundary line has been established under prior law for at least 25
1-17 years, the court shall grant the motion for summary judgment,
1-18 declare that line to be the true boundary between the counties, and
1-19 [shall] have that line resurveyed and established as the boundary.
1-20 SECTION 2. The change in law made by this Act does not apply
1-21 to or affect litigation pending on the effective date of this Act
1-22 that relates to the determination of a boundary line under Section
1-23 72.009, Local Government Code, as that statute existed immediately
1-24 before the effective date of this Act.
2-1 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-2 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-3 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-4 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-5 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.