By:  Brown, Carona                                     S.B. No. 884
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to a landlord's duty to mitigate damages under certain
 1-2     circumstances.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 92, Property Code, is
 1-5     amended by adding Section 92.013 to read as follows:
 1-6           Sec. 92.013.  LANDLORD'S DUTY TO MITIGATE DAMAGES.  (a)  A
 1-7     landlord has a duty to mitigate damages if a tenant abandons the
 1-8     leased premises in violation of the lease.
 1-9           (b)  A provision of a lease that purports to waive a right or
1-10     to exempt a landlord from a liability or duty under this section is
1-11     void.
1-12           SECTION 2.  Section 91.006, Property Code, is repealed.
1-13           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-14     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-15     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-16     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-17     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-18     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-19     passage, and it is so enacted.