By Yarbrough                                           H.B. No. 554
         76R3441 PAM-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to including disputes between property owners and property
 1-3     owners' associations within the jurisdiction of justice and small
 1-4     claims courts.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Section 27.031, Government Code, is amended to
 1-7     read as follows:
 1-8           Sec. 27.031.  JURISDICTION.  (a)  In addition to the
 1-9     jurisdiction and powers provided by the constitution and other law,
1-10     the justice court has original jurisdiction of:
1-11                 (1)  civil matters in which exclusive jurisdiction is
1-12     not in the district or county court and in which the amount in
1-13     controversy is not more than $5,000, exclusive of interest;
1-14                 (2)  cases of forcible entry and detainer; [and]
1-15                 (3)  foreclosure of mortgages and enforcement of liens
1-16     on personal property in cases in which the amount in controversy is
1-17     otherwise within the justice court's jurisdiction; and
1-18                 (4)  disputes between property owners and property
1-19     owners' associations, including the enforcement of a lien for
1-20     failure to pay property owners' association dues, in cases in which
1-21     the amount in controversy is otherwise within the justice court's
1-22     jurisdiction.
1-23           (b)  A justice court does not have jurisdiction of:
1-24                 (1)  a suit in behalf of the state to recover a
 2-1     penalty, forfeiture, or escheat;
 2-2                 (2)  a suit for divorce;
 2-3                 (3)  a suit to recover damages for slander or
 2-4     defamation of character;
 2-5                 (4)  a suit for trial of title to land; or
 2-6                 (5)  except as provided by Subsection (a)(4), a suit
 2-7     for the enforcement of a lien on land.
 2-8           SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect on September 1, 1999.
 2-9           (b)  The change in law made by this Act applies only to
2-10     actions filed on or after the effective date of this Act.  An
2-11     action filed before the effective date of this Act is governed by
2-12     the law in effect at the time the action was filed, and the former
2-13     law is continued in effect for that purpose.
2-14           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-15     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.