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.