1-1     By:  Duncan                                           S.B. No. 1436
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 12, 1999; March 15, 1999, read
 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Jurisprudence;
 1-4     April 15, 1999, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
 1-5     Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 3, Nays 0; April 15, 1999,
 1-6     sent to printer.)
 1-7     COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 1436               By:  Wentworth
 1-8                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-9                                   AN ACT
1-10     relating to the authority of a judge to conduct certain judicial
1-11     proceedings in a county other than the one in which the suit is
1-12     filed.
1-13           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-14           SECTION 1.  Section 74.094, Government Code, is amended by
1-15     adding Subsection (e) to read as follows:
1-16           (e)  A judge who has jurisdiction over a suit pending in one
1-17     county may, unless objected to by any party, conduct any of the
1-18     judicial proceedings except the trial on the merits in a different
1-19     county.
1-20           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-21     applies to a suit filed on or after that date.  A suit filed before
1-22     the effective date of this Act is covered by the law in effect when
1-23     the suit was filed, and the former law is continued in effect for
1-24     that purpose.
1-25           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-26     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-27     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-28     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-29     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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