By Hilderbran                                         H.B. No. 3385
         76R6642 WP-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the award of attorney's fees and court costs in certain
 1-3     actions to determine whether a governmental action results in a
 1-4     taking of private real property.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Section 2007.026, Government Code, is amended to
 1-7     read as follows:
 1-8           Sec. 2007.026.  FEES AND COSTS.  [(a)]  The court or the
 1-9     state agency shall award a private real property owner who prevails
1-10     in a suit or contested case filed under this subchapter reasonable
1-11     and necessary attorney's fees and court costs.
1-12           [(b)  The court or the state agency shall award a
1-13     governmental entity that prevails in a suit or contested case filed
1-14     under this subchapter reasonable and necessary attorney's fees and
1-15     court costs.]
1-16           SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies to a
1-17     suit or contested case filed before the effective date of this Act
1-18     only if a judgment or final decision or order in the suit or case
1-19     was not rendered or issued before that date.
1-20           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-21     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-22     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-23     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-24     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 2-1     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 2-2     passage, and it is so enacted.