By Pitts                                              H.B. No. 1397
         76R6125 PAM-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the validity of an unrecorded instrument conveying an
 1-3     interest in real property.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 13.001(b), Property Code, is amended to
 1-6     read as follows:
 1-7           (b)  The unrecorded instrument is binding on a party to the
 1-8     instrument, on the party's heirs, and on a subsequent purchaser who
 1-9     does not pay a valuable consideration or who has notice of the
1-10     instrument.  A subsequent purchaser for valuable consideration does
1-11     not have notice of an unrecorded instrument solely because the
1-12     property was conveyed to the subsequent purchaser by a quitclaim
1-13     deed.
1-14           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-15           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-16     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-17     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-18     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-19     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.