By:  Duncan                                           S.B. No. 1436
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to the authority of a judge to conduct certain judicial
 1-2     proceedings in a county other than the one in which the suit is
 1-3     filed.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 74.094, Government Code, is amended by
 1-6     adding Subsection (e) to read as follows:
 1-7           (e)  A judge who has jurisdiction over a suit pending in one
 1-8     county may, unless objected to by any party, conduct any of the
 1-9     judicial proceedings except the trial on the merits in a different
1-10     county.
1-11           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-12     applies to a suit filed on or after that date.  A suit filed before
1-13     the effective date of this Act is covered by the law in effect when
1-14     the suit was filed, and the former law is continued in effect for
1-15     that purpose.
1-16           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-17     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-18     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-19     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-20     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.