1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to filing a petition that initiates a condemnation
 1-3     proceeding.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 21.013(b), Property Code, is amended to
 1-6     read as follows:
 1-7           (b)  Except where otherwise provided by law, a party
 1-8     initiating a condemnation proceeding in a county in which there is
 1-9     one or more county courts at law with jurisdiction shall [may] file
1-10     the petition with any clerk authorized to handle such filings for
1-11     that court or courts.
1-12           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-13     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-14     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-15     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-16     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-17     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-18     passage, and it is so enacted.
         _______________________________     _______________________________
             President of the Senate              Speaker of the House
               I certify that H.B. No. 1187 was passed by the House on May
         4, 1999, by the following vote:  Yeas 141, Nays 0, 1 present, not
         voting.
                                             _______________________________
                                                 Chief Clerk of the House
               I certify that H.B. No. 1187 was passed by the Senate on May
         25, 1999, by the following vote:  Yeas 29, Nays 1.
                                             _______________________________
                                                 Secretary of the Senate
         APPROVED:  _____________________
                            Date
                    _____________________
                          Governor