By Solis of Bexar                                     H.B. No. 2334
         76R3212 GJH-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to vacating a judgment in a delinquent tax suit.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 33, Tax Code, is amended by
 1-5     adding Section 33.56 to read as follows:
 1-6           Sec. 33.56.  VACATION OF JUDGMENT.  (a)  If, in a suit to
 1-7     collect a delinquent tax, a court renders a judgment for
 1-8     foreclosure of a tax lien on behalf of a taxing unit, the taxing
 1-9     unit may file a petition to vacate the judgment for:
1-10                 (1)  failure to join a person needed for just
1-11     adjudication under the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, including a
1-12     taxing unit required to be joined under Section 33.44(a);
1-13                 (2)  failure to serve a person needed for just
1-14     adjudication under the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, including a
1-15     taxing unit required to be joined under Section 33.44(a); or
1-16                 (3)  failure of the judgment to adequately describe the
1-17     property that is the subject of the suit.
1-18           (b)  The taxing unit must file the petition  under the same
1-19     cause number as the delinquent tax suit and in the same  court.
1-20           (c)  The taxing unit may not file a petition if a tax sale of
1-21     the property has occurred unless the tax sale has been vacated by
1-22     an order of a court.
1-23           (d)  A copy of the petition must be served on each party to
1-24     the delinquent tax suit.
 2-1           (e)  If the court grants the petition, the judgment is
 2-2     vacated and the delinquent tax suit is revived.
 2-3           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect immediately and applies
 2-4     only to a judgment rendered on or after the effective date of this
 2-5     Act.  A judgment  rendered before the effective date of this Act is
 2-6     governed by the law in effect on the date the judgment was
 2-7     rendered, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
 2-8           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-9     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-10     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-11     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-12     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-13     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-14     passage, and it is so enacted.