Bill Text: TX HJR65 | 2025-2026 | 89th Legislature | Introduced

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Bill Title: Proposing a constitutional amendment allowing recovery of exemplary damages by parents or a person's estate for a homicide.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-11-12 - Filed [HJR65 Detail]

Download: Texas-2025-HJR65-Introduced.html

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89R676 MZM-D
By: Thompson H.J.R. No. 65

A JOINT RESOLUTION
proposing a constitutional amendment allowing recovery of
exemplary damages by parents or a person's estate for a homicide.
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 26, Article XVI, Texas Constitution, is
amended to read as follows:
Sec. 26. Every person, corporation, or company, that may
commit a homicide, through wilful act, or omission, or gross
neglect, shall be responsible, in exemplary damages, to the
surviving spouse, children, or parents [husband, widow, heirs of
his or her body], [or] such of them as there may be, or the deceased
person's estate without regard to any criminal proceeding that may
or may not be had in relation to the homicide.
SECTION 2. This proposed constitutional amendment shall be
submitted to the voters at an election to be held November 4, 2025.
The ballot shall be printed to permit voting for or against the
proposition: "The constitutional amendment allowing recovery of
exemplary damages by parents or a person's estate for a homicide."