By:  Shapleigh                                         S.B. No. 908
         99S0511/1                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to the award of abandoned vehicles and vessels to
 1-2     government agencies.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subsection (b), Article 47.01a, Code of Criminal
 1-5     Procedure, is amended to read as follows:
 1-6           (b)  If it is shown in a hearing that probable cause exists
 1-7     to believe that the property was acquired by theft or by another
 1-8     manner that makes its acquisition an offense and that the identity
 1-9     of the actual owner of the property cannot be determined, the court
1-10     shall order the peace officer to:
1-11                 (1)  deliver the property to a government agency for
1-12     official purposes, and if the property is property subject to
1-13     Chapter 501, Transportation Code, or a watercraft or an outboard
1-14     motor, the government agency may take title free and clear of all
1-15     liens and claims of ownership, provided notice of the hearing under
1-16     this chapter has been sent by certified mail not less than 10 days
1-17     prior to the date of the hearing to the last known registered owner
1-18     of the property subject to Chapter 501, Transportation Code, or the
1-19     watercraft or outboard motor, and each lienholder recorded under
1-20     Chapter 501, Transportation Code, for property subject to that
1-21     chapter, or under Chapter 31, Parks and Wildlife Code, for a
1-22     watercraft or an outboard motor;
1-23                 (2)  deliver the property to a person authorized by
1-24     Article 18.17 of this code to receive and dispose of the property;
 2-1     or
 2-2                 (3)  destroy the property.
 2-3           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 2-4           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-5     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-6     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-7     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-8     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.