89R1072 LRM-D
By: Dorazio H.B. No. 1050
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the award of attorney's fees in certain suits involving
a groundwater conservation district.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Sections 36.066(g) and (h), Water Code, are
amended to read as follows:
(g) Except for [If the district prevails in any suit other
than] a suit in which a district [it] voluntarily intervenes, the
prevailing party in a suit governed by this section [district] may
seek and the court shall grant, in the interests of justice and as
provided by Subsection (h), in the same action, recovery for
attorney's fees, costs for expert witnesses, and other costs
incurred by the prevailing party [district] before the court. The
amount of the attorney's fees shall be fixed by the court.
(h) The court shall award to a prevailing party that [If the
district] prevails on some, but not all, of the issues in the suit
[, the court shall award] attorney's fees and costs only for those
issues on which the party [district] prevails. The prevailing
party [district] has the burden of segregating the attorney's fees
and costs in order for the court to make an award.
SECTION 2. Section 36.066, Water Code, as amended by this
Act, applies only to a suit involving a groundwater conservation
district that is filed on or after the effective date of this Act. A
suit filed before the effective date of this Act is subject to the
law in effect on the date the suit is filed, and that law is
continued in effect for that purpose.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.