By Culberson                                          H.B. No. 2994
         76R1484 DLF-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the authority to appeal the denial of a motion for
 1-3     summary judgment in certain cases.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 51.014(a), Civil Practice and Remedies
 1-6     Code, is amended to read as follows:
 1-7           (a)  A person may appeal from an interlocutory order of a
 1-8     district court, county court at law, or county court that:
 1-9                 (1)  appoints a receiver or trustee;
1-10                 (2)  overrules a motion to vacate an order that
1-11     appoints a receiver or trustee;
1-12                 (3)  certifies or refuses to certify a class in a suit
1-13     brought under Rule 42 of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure;
1-14                 (4)  grants or refuses a temporary injunction or grants
1-15     or overrules a motion to dissolve a temporary injunction as
1-16     provided by Chapter 65;
1-17                 (5)  denies a motion for summary judgment that is based
1-18     on an assertion of immunity by an individual who is an officer or
1-19     employee of the state or a political subdivision of the state;
1-20                 (6)  denies a motion for summary judgment that is based
1-21     in whole or in part upon a claim against or defense by a member of
1-22     the electronic or print media, acting in such capacity, or a person
1-23     whose communication appears in or is published by the electronic or
1-24     print media, arising under the free speech or free press clause of
 2-1     the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, or Article
 2-2     1, Section 8, of the Texas Constitution, or Chapter 73;
 2-3                 (7)  denies a motion for summary judgment that involves
 2-4     a controlling question of law as to which there is substantial
 2-5     ground for the difference of opinion and the resolution of which
 2-6     may materially advance the ultimate end of the litigation;
 2-7                 (8)  grants or denies the special appearance of a
 2-8     defendant under Rule 120a, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, except
 2-9     in a suit brought under the Family Code; or
2-10                 (9) [(8)]  grants or denies a plea to the jurisdiction
2-11     by a governmental unit as that term is defined in Section 101.001.
2-12           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
2-13     applies only to an appeal of an order denying a motion for summary
2-14     judgment rendered on or after the effective date of this Act.  The
2-15     appeal of an order denying a motion for summary judgment rendered
2-16     before the effective date of this Act is governed by the law as it
2-17     existed immediately before that date and that law is continued in
2-18     effect for that purpose.
2-19           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-20     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-21     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-22     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-23     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.