By Hilbert                                            H.B. No. 1185
         Line and page numbers may not match official copy.
         Bill not drafted by TLC or Senate E&E.
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the preservation of the rights of property owners
 1-3     through a uniform procedure to acquire and condemn an interest in
 1-4     property.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Section 21.017, Property Code, is amended to read
 1-7     as follows:
 1-8           Sec. 21.017.  ALTERNATIVE PLEADINGS.  (a)  This state, a
 1-9     political subdivision of this state, a person, an association of
1-10     persons, or a corporation that is a party to a suit covered by
1-11     Section 21.003 of this code by petition, cross-bill, or plea of
1-12     intervention may assert a claim to the property or, alternatively,
1-13     seek to condemn the property.
1-14           (b)  A plea under this section is not an admission of an
1-15     adverse party's title to the property in controversy.
1-16           (c)  If a party, as provided in subsection (a), asserts a
1-17     claim to property that it is occupying or otherwise using and,
1-18     thereafter, it is determined that the party knowingly failed to
1-19     acquire all legal interests in the property that would entitle the
1-20     party to fully use and occupy the property for the purposes for
1-21     which the property is being occupied and used, the court shall
 2-1     order the party to surrender possession of the property, dismiss
 2-2     any action that the party has filed pursuant to subsection (a) and,
 2-3     upon dismissal, make an allowance to the property owner for the
 2-4     same relief as is provided a property owner in Section 21.0195(c).
 2-5     Thereafter, the party shall not be entitled to possess the property
 2-6     for any purpose until it has complied fully with the standard
 2-7     procedures to condemn provided in Sections 21.0111 through 21.016
 2-8     of this Code.
 2-9           SECTION 2.  This Act applies to all pending cases and
2-10     proceedings and to those filed on or after the effective date of
2-11     this Act.
2-12           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-13     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-14     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-15     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-16     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-17     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-18     passage, and it is so enacted.