By Averitt                                            H.B. No. 3276
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the application of the Texas Non-Profit Corporation Act
 1-3     to charitable trustees.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Article 1396-2.31, Texas Non-Profit Corporation
 1-6     Act is amended by designating the existing language as Section A
 1-7     and by inserting a new Section B to read as follows:
 1-8           B.  Any corporation (or person or entity assisting such
 1-9     corporation) described in this article shall have immunity from
1-10     suit (including both a defense to liability and the right not to
1-11     bear the cost, burden, and risk of discovery and trial) as to any
1-12     claim alleging that the corporation's role as trustee of a trust
1-13     described in this article constitutes engaging in the trust
1-14     business in a manner requiring a state charter in this state.  An
1-15     interlocutory appeal may be taken if a court denies or otherwise
1-16     fails to grant a motion for summary judgment that is based on an
1-17     assertion of the immunity provided in this subsection.
1-18           SECTION 2.  (a)  Article 1396-2.31, Texas Non-Profit
1-19     Corporation Act, as that section exists on the effective date of
1-20     this Act, applies to any trust created before, on, or after the
1-21     effective date of this Act, including any trust that is the subject
1-22     of litigation or another proceeding that is pending before, on, or
1-23     after the effective date of this Act.
1-24           (b)  This section applies without regard to the effective
 2-1     date of the legislation enacting Article 1396-2.31, Texas
 2-2     Non-Profit Corporation Act or any other legislation enacted by any
 2-3     legislature that amended the provisions of Article 1396-2.31, Texas
 2-4     Non-Profit Corporation Act.
 2-5           SECTION 3.  This Act applies to any trust created before, on,
 2-6     or after the effective date of this Act, including any trust that
 2-7     is the subject of litigation or another proceeding that is pending
 2-8     before, on, or after the effective date of this Act.
 2-9           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-10     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-11     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-12     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-13     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-14     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-15     passage, and it is so enacted.