76R6899 PAM-D                           
         By Turner of Coleman                                   H.B. No. 427
         Substitute the following for H.B. No. 427:
         By Chisum                                          C.S.H.B. No. 427
                                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.