By Allen                                               H.B. No. 681
         76R3940 DLF-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to claims against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice
 1-3     for certain conduct of state prison inmates.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 101.029, Civil Practice and Remedies
 1-6     Code, is amended to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 101.029.  LIABILITY FOR CERTAIN CONDUCT OF STATE PRISON
 1-8     INMATES.  (a)  The Department of Criminal Justice is liable for
 1-9     property damage, personal injury, and death proximately caused by
1-10     the wrongful act or omission or the negligence of an inmate or
1-11     state jail defendant housed in a facility operated by the
1-12     department if:
1-13                 (1)  the property damage, personal injury, or death
1-14     arises from the operation or use of a motor-driven vehicle or
1-15     motor-driven equipment;
1-16                 (2)  the inmate or defendant would be personally liable
1-17     to the claimant for the property damage, personal injury, or death
1-18     according  to Texas law were the inmate or defendant a private
1-19     person  acting in similar circumstances; and
1-20                 (3)  the act, omission, or negligence was committed by
1-21     the inmate or defendant acting in the course and scope of a task or
1-22     activity that:
1-23                       (A)  the inmate or defendant performed at the
1-24     request of an employee of the department; and
 2-1                       (B)  the inmate or defendant performed under the
 2-2     control or supervision of the department.
 2-3           (b)  A claimant may not name the inmate or state jail
 2-4     defendant whose act or omission gave rise to the claim as a
 2-5     codefendant in an action brought under this section.
 2-6           (c)  A judgment in an action or a settlement of a claim
 2-7     against the Department of Criminal Justice under this section bars
 2-8     any action involving the same subject matter by the claimant
 2-9     against the inmate or state jail defendant whose act or omission
2-10     gave rise to the claim. A judgment in an action or a settlement of
2-11     a claim against an inmate or state jail defendant bars any action
2-12     involving the same subject matter by the claimant against the
2-13     Department of Criminal Justice under this section.
2-14           (d)  This section does not apply to property damage, personal
2-15      injury, or death sustained by an inmate or state jail defendant.
2-16           SECTION 2.   This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-17           SECTION 3.  This Act applies only to a cause of action that
2-18     accrues on or after the effective date of this Act.  A cause of
2-19     action that accrues before the effective date of this Act is
2-20     governed by the law as it existed immediately before the effective
2-21     date of this Act, and that law is continued in effect for that
2-22     purpose.
2-23           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-24     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-25     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-26     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-27     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.