By Dunnam H.B. No. 2451 76R8493 PB-D A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1-1 AN ACT 1-2 relating to a bar on certain defenses in an action by an injured 1-3 employee against an employer who does not have workers' 1-4 compensation insurance coverage. 1-5 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: 1-6 SECTION 1. Section 406.033, Labor Code, is amended by adding 1-7 Subsection (e) to read as follows: 1-8 (e) In an action described by Subsection (a) against an 1-9 employer who does not have workers' compensation insurance 1-10 coverage, the court may not consider any comparative 1-11 responsibility of the employee to reduce or bar the employee's 1-12 recovery. Sections 33.001, 33.003, 33.012, and 33.013, Civil 1-13 Practice and Remedies Code, do not apply to an action described by 1-14 Subsection (a). 1-15 SECTION 2. Section 406.033(e), Labor Code, as added by this 1-16 Act, applies only to a cause of action that accrues on or after the 1-17 effective date of this Act. A cause of action that accrues before 1-18 that date is governed by the law as it existed immediately before 1-19 the effective date of this Act, and that law is continued in effect 1-20 for that purpose. 1-21 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999. 1-22 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the 1-23 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an 1-24 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 2-1 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several 2-2 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.