By Nixon                                               S.B. No. 546
         76R4055 PAM-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to exempting a co-owner's interest in real property from
 1-3     seizure to satisfy the debts of another co-owner of real property.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 41, Property Code, is
 1-6     amended by adding Section 41.008 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 41.008.  CO-OWNER'S INTEREST IN LAND EXEMPT FROM
 1-8     SEIZURE.  (a)  This section applies only to real property for which
 1-9     the title to the  property is held by more than one person, with
1-10     each person owning an undivided interest in the property.
1-11           (b)  A creditor who is entitled to recover by law from a
1-12     person who owns an undivided interest in real property may recover
1-13     from the proceeds of the sale of the property only that portion of
1-14     the proceeds that relates to the undivided interest sold by that
1-15     person.
1-16           SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-17           (b)  The change in law made by this Act applies only to a
1-18     cause of action to recover on a debt that accrues on or after the
1-19     effective date of this Act.  A cause of action to recover on a debt
1-20     that accrues before the effective date of this Act is governed by
1-21     the law in effect immediately preceding the effective date of this
1-22     Act, and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
1-23           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-24     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-1     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-2     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-3     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.