By: Kuempel (Senate Sponsor - Harris) H.B. No. 556

(In the Senate - Received from the House May 11, 2009; May 11, 2009, read first time and referred to Committee on State Affairs; May 23, 2009, reported adversely, with favorable Committee Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 9, Nays 0; May 23, 2009, sent to printer.)

COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR H.B. No. 556 By: Harris

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to payment of attorney's fees in certain actions to recover possession of real property.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Section 16.034(a), Civil Practice and Remedies Code, is amended to read as follows:

(a) In a suit for the possession of real property between a person claiming under record title to the property and one claiming by adverse possession, if the prevailing party recovers possession of the property from a person unlawfully in actual possession, the court:

(1) shall [may] award costs and reasonable attorney's fees to the prevailing party if the court finds that the person unlawfully in actual possession made a claim of adverse possession that was groundless and made in bad faith; and

(2) may award costs and reasonable attorney's fees to the prevailing party in the absence of a finding described by Subdivision (1).

SECTION 2. The change in law made by this Act applies only to a suit for the possession of real property filed on or after the effective date of this Act. A suit filed before the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect immediately before the effective date of this Act, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.

SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2009.

* * * * *