§ 143.001.Cause of Action

A short section carrying both the cause of action and its deadline.

Subsection (a): a person who is injured or whose property has been injured as a result of a violation of Penal Code Chapter 33 has a civil cause of action if the conduct constituting the violation was committed knowingly or intentionally.

Chapter 33 of the Penal Code is the computer crimes chapter, covering breach of computer security — accessing a computer, network or system without the owner’s effective consent — along with online impersonation and related offenses.

The mental state is a real limit. The civil claim requires the conduct to have been knowing or intentional, so a violation committed recklessly or negligently supports no claim here.

No conviction is required, on the usual pattern of these borrowing statutes — the test is conduct constituting the violation, proved to the civil standard.

Subsection (b) supplies a limitations period found nowhere in the limitations chapter, and it is a two-part clock where the earlier date controls.

Suit must be brought before the earlier of: the fifth anniversary of the last act in the course of the conduct; or the second anniversary of the date the claimant first discovered or had reasonable opportunity to discover the violation.

So the five years is an outer repose and the two years is a discovery period. Someone who learns of an intrusion in year one has until year three; someone who never learns of it is barred at five whatever their diligence.

That structure suits the subject. Unauthorised access is frequently discovered long after it happened, and sometimes never.