By: Leach H.B. No. 3849
 
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
  relating to the liability of a person granting access to a gated
  community to a process server.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 17, Civil Practice and
  Remedies Code, is amended by adding Section 17.033 to read as
  follows:
         Sec. 17.033.  SERVICE AT GATED COMMUNITY. (a) In this
  section:
               (1)  "Civil process" means all process issued or
  sanctioned by a civil court.
               (2)  "Gated community" means a residential subdivision
  or housing development that contains two or more dwellings not
  under common ownership and that has a vehicular or pedestrian gate.
               (3)  "Process server" means a person certified by the
  supreme court who serves civil process.
         (b)  It is an affirmative defense to a civil action for
  damages arising as a result of a property owner, manager, or
  security guard granting a person access to a gated community that
  the property owner, manager, or security guard granted the access
  in the exercise of reasonable care to a process server, constable,
  or sheriff for delivery of process.
         SECTION 2.  Section 17.033, Civil Practice and Remedies
  Code, as added by this Act, applies to all process served on or
  after the effective date of this Act, without regard to whether the
  process was issued before, on, or after that date.
         SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2015.