TITLE: Relating to the liability of a person granting access to a gated community to a process server.

SUMMARY: Relating to the liability of a person granting access to a gated community to a process server.

FULL TEXT:
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 17.032 to read as follows: Sec. 17.032. 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 17.032, 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, 2013.