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.