By:  Naishtat                                          H.B. No. 987
       73R2949 KLL-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to instructions for the disposition of a person's remains
    1-3  and providing protection from liability for a business that carries
    1-4  out those instructions.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Sections 711.002(e) and (g), Health and Safety
    1-7  Code, are amended to read as follows:
    1-8        (e)  A person may provide instructions to direct the
    1-9  preparation for and type or place of interment of the person's
   1-10  remains or to direct that the person be cremated.  The instructions
   1-11  may be modified only in writing.  The person or persons otherwise
   1-12  entitled to control the disposition of the remains under this
   1-13  section shall faithfully carry out the instructions of the
   1-14  decedent.
   1-15        (g)  A cemetery association, a business operating a crematory
   1-16  or columbarium or both, or a business operating a funeral
   1-17  establishment is not liable for carrying out the instructions of
   1-18  the decedent unless it has actual notice that the representation is
   1-19  untrue.
   1-20        SECTION 2.  This Act applies to instructions for the
   1-21  disposition of a person's remains issued before, on, or after the
   1-22  effective date of this Act.
   1-23        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-24  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-1  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-2  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-3  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-4  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-5  passage, and it is so enacted.