HB1050 - Relating to the award of attorney's fees in certain suits involving a groundwater conservation district.

  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.