By:  Hartnett                                         H.B. No. 1711
       73R6376 E
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to guardian bonds and amounts expended for education and
    1-3  maintenance.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 236(b), Texas Probate Code, is amended to
    1-6  read as follows:
    1-7        (b)  Court Approval of Previous Expenditures.  When a
    1-8  guardian has in good faith expended funds from the corpus of his
    1-9  ward's estate for support and maintenance for the ward, and when it
   1-10  is not convenient or possible to first secure approval of the
   1-11  Court, if the proof is clear and convincing that such expenditures
   1-12  were reasonable and proper and such that the Court would have
   1-13  granted authority to make the expenditures out of the corpus, and
   1-14  that the ward received the benefits of such expenditures, the
   1-15  judge, in the exercise of his sound discretion, may approve such
   1-16  expenditures in the same manner as if such expenditures were made
   1-17  by the guardian out of the income from the ward's estate.
   1-18  Provided, however, such expenditures for each ward may not exceed
   1-19  the sum of $5,000 during an annual accounting period.
   1-20        SECTION 2.  This Act applies to expenditures made on or after
   1-21  its effective date.  This Act may be applied, in the court's
   1-22  discretion, as to any estates that are open as of the effective
   1-23  date of this Act.
   1-24        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-1  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-2  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-3  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-4  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.