1-1     By:  Moncrief                                          S.B. No. 567
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed February 17, 1999; February 18, 1999,
 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on Health Services;
 1-4     April 14, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 5,
 1-5     Nays 0; April 14, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the penalty for disclosing a person's human
 1-9     immunodeficiency virus status.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Subsections (b) and (c), Section 81.104, Health
1-12     and Safety Code, are amended to read as follows:
1-13           (b)  A person who violates Section 81.102 or who is found in
1-14     a civil action to have negligently released or disclosed a test
1-15     result or allowed a test result to become known in violation of
1-16     Section 81.103 is liable for:
1-17                 (1)  actual damages;
1-18                 (2)  a civil penalty of not more than $5,000 [$1,000];
1-19     and
1-20                 (3)  court costs and reasonable attorney's fees
1-21     incurred by the person bringing the action.
1-22           (c)  A person who is found in a civil action to have wilfully
1-23     released or disclosed a test result or allowed a test result to
1-24     become known in violation of Section 81.103 is liable for:
1-25                 (1)  actual damages;
1-26                 (2)  a civil penalty of not less than $5,000 [$1,000]
1-27     nor more than $10,000 [$5,000]; and
1-28                 (3)  court costs and reasonable attorney's fees
1-29     incurred by the person bringing the action.
1-30           SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-31           (b)  The changes in law made by this Act relating to the
1-32     civil penalty for a violation of Section 81.102 or 81.103, Health
1-33     and Safety Code, apply only to a violation that occurs on or after
1-34     the effective date of this Act.  For the purposes of this section,
1-35     a violation occurs before the effective date of this Act if any
1-36     element of the violation occurs before that date.  A violation that
1-37     occurred before the effective date of this Act is covered by the
1-38     law in effect when the violation occurred, and the former law is
1-39     continued in effect for that purpose.
1-40           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-41     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-42     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-43     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-44     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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