1-1     By:  Luna                                              S.B. No. 953
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 5, 1999; March 8, 1999, read
 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Jurisprudence;
 1-4     March 25, 1999, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
 1-5     Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 5, Nays 0; March 25, 1999,
 1-6     sent to printer.)
 1-7     COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 953                     By:  Luna
 1-8                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-9                                   AN ACT
1-10     relating to vacating a judgment in a delinquent tax suit.
1-11           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-12           SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 33, Tax Code, is amended by
1-13     adding Section 33.56 to read as follows:
1-14           Sec. 33.56.  VACATION OF JUDGMENT.  (a)  If, in a suit to
1-15     collect a delinquent tax, a court renders a judgment for
1-16     foreclosure of a tax lien on behalf of a taxing unit, the taxing
1-17     unit may file a petition to vacate the judgment for:
1-18                 (1)  failure to join a person needed for just
1-19     adjudication under the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, including a
1-20     taxing unit required to be joined under Section 33.44(a);
1-21                 (2)  failure to serve a person needed for just
1-22     adjudication under the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, including a
1-23     taxing unit required to be joined under Section 33.44(a); or
1-24                 (3)  failure of the judgment to adequately describe the
1-25     property that is the subject of the suit.
1-26           (b)  The taxing unit must file the petition  under the same
1-27     cause number as the delinquent tax suit and in the same court.
1-28           (c)  The taxing unit may not file a petition if a tax sale of
1-29     the property has occurred unless:
1-30                 (1)  the tax sale has been vacated by an order of a
1-31     court; or
1-32                 (2)  the property was sold to the taxing unit under
1-33     Section 34.01(c) and has not been resold.
1-34           (d)  A copy of the petition must be served on each party to
1-35     the delinquent tax suit.
1-36           (e)  If the court grants the petition, the judgment is
1-37     vacated and the delinquent tax suit is revived.
1-38           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect immediately and applies to
1-39     a judgment for foreclosure of a tax lien rendered before, on, or
1-40     after the effective date of this Act.
1-41           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-42     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-43     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-44     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-45     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-46     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-47     passage, and it is so enacted.
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