By Hartnett                                           H.B. No. 2456
         76R4285 DAK-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the statute of limitations for certain civil actions.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 16.004(a), Civil Practice and Remedies
 1-5     Code, is amended to read as follows:
 1-6           (a)  A person must bring suit on the following actions not
 1-7     later than four years after the day the cause of action accrues:
 1-8                 (1)  specific performance of a contract for the
 1-9     conveyance of real property;
1-10                 (2)  penalty or damages on the penal clause of a bond
1-11     to convey real property;  [or]
1-12                 (3)  debt;
1-13                 (4)  fraud; or
1-14                 (5)  breach of fiduciary duty.
1-15           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-16     applies only to a cause of action that accrues on or after that
1-17     date.  An action that accrued before the effective date of this Act
1-18     is governed by the law applicable to the action 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.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-22     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-23     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-24     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-1     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.