The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Texas
- Level
- State
- Authority
- Tex. Health & Safety Code § 341.011
- Issued
- 1989-09-01 Sept. 1, 1989
- Effective
- standing (read as 1989-09-01)
- End
- standing (read as 2021-09-30)
- In force
- Standing since Sept. 1, 1989 (a statutory duty; in force throughout the six quarters)
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Business closureWorkplace rulesStanding duty
- Addressees
- owners or persons in control of premises; specified businesses (restaurants, food markets, bakeries, other places of business handling food)
- Character
- sanitary code duty
- Collection
- Standing duties: Texas DUT-TX
Operative words
Each of the following is a public health nuisance:... a restaurant, food market, bakery, other place of business, or vehicle in which food is prepared, packed, stored, transported, sold, or served to the public and that is not constantly maintained in a sanitary condition;... an object, place, or condition that is a possible and probable medium of disease transmission to or between humans.
Penalty
Tex. Health & Safety Code § 341.091 (Ex. DUT-TX-017): misdemeanor, $10 to $200; on a second conviction within a year $10 to $1,000 and up to 30 days' confinement; each day a separate offense; civil enforcement under § 341.092
What it required
Every place of business serving food to the public was bound to be 'constantly maintained in a sanitary condition,' and any 'object, place, or condition' that was 'a possible and probable medium of disease transmission to or between humans' was a public health nuisance subject to abatement, criminal penalty and civil enforcement under the same chapter; a business premises operated without the sanitation, disinfection and distancing measures the health authorities prescribed answered that description.
Retrieval noteThe official chapter page (HS.341.htm) failed to render in three attempts (live and Wayback), so the exhibit is the public.law mirror, which reproduces the codified section verbatim with its history line and cites the official source (statutes.capitol.texas.gov, HS.341.htm#341.011). The section was last amended in 2015, so the text is the one in force in the claim period. Section 341.012 (abatement of nuisance by the local health authority) is not separately saved.