1-1     By:  Allen (Senate Sponsor - Duncan)                   H.B. No. 681
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 16, 1999;
 1-3     April 19, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Criminal Justice; May 10, 1999, reported favorably by the following
 1-5     vote:  Yeas 7, Nays 0; May 10, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to claims against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice
 1-9     for certain conduct of state prison inmates.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 101.029, Civil Practice and Remedies
1-12     Code, is amended to read as follows:
1-13           Sec. 101.029.  LIABILITY FOR CERTAIN CONDUCT OF STATE PRISON
1-14     INMATES.  (a)  The Department of Criminal Justice is liable for
1-15     property damage, personal injury, and death proximately caused by
1-16     the wrongful act or omission or the negligence of an inmate or
1-17     state jail defendant housed in a facility operated by the
1-18     department if:
1-19                 (1)  the property damage, personal injury, or death
1-20     arises from the operation or use of a motor-driven vehicle or
1-21     motor-driven equipment;
1-22                 (2)  the inmate or defendant would be personally liable
1-23     to the claimant for the property damage, personal injury, or death
1-24     according  to Texas law were the inmate or defendant a private
1-25     person  acting in similar circumstances; and
1-26                 (3)  the act, omission, or negligence was committed by
1-27     the inmate or defendant acting in the course and scope of a task or
1-28     activity that:
1-29                       (A)  the inmate or defendant performed at the
1-30     request of an employee of the department; and
1-31                       (B)  the inmate or defendant performed under the
1-32     control or supervision of the department.
1-33           (b)  A claimant may not name the inmate or state jail
1-34     defendant whose act or omission gave rise to the claim as a
1-35     codefendant in an action brought under this section.
1-36           (c)  A judgment in an action or a settlement of a claim
1-37     against the Department of Criminal Justice under this section bars
1-38     any action involving the same subject matter by the claimant
1-39     against the inmate or state jail defendant whose act or omission
1-40     gave rise to the claim. A judgment in an action or a settlement of
1-41     a claim against an inmate or state jail defendant bars any action
1-42     involving the same subject matter by the claimant against the
1-43     Department of Criminal Justice under this section.
1-44           (d)  This section does not apply to property damage, personal
1-45      injury, or death sustained by an inmate or state jail defendant.
1-46           SECTION 2.   This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-47           SECTION 3.  This Act applies only to a cause of action that
1-48     accrues on or after the effective date of this Act.  A cause of
1-49     action that accrues before the effective date of this Act is
1-50     governed by the law as it existed immediately before the effective
1-51     date of this Act, and that law is continued in effect for that
1-52     purpose.
1-53           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-54     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-55     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-56     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-57     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-58                                  * * * * *