By:  Wentworth                                        S.B. No. 1015
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the time for requiring a personal representative to
    1-2  close an estate.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 406, Texas Probate Code, is amended to
    1-5  read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 406.  Procedure in Case of Neglect or Failure to File
    1-7  Final Account; Payments Due Meantime.  If a personal representative
    1-8  charged with the duty of filing a final account fails or neglects
    1-9  so to do at the proper time, the court may <shall>, upon its own
   1-10  motion, or shall, upon the written complaint of any one interested
   1-11  in the decedent's or ward's estate which has been administered,
   1-12  cause such representative to be cited to appear and present such
   1-13  account within the time specified in the citation.  As to a
   1-14  guardianship of a person or estate of a minor or deceased ward when
   1-15  no written complaint has been filed by anyone interested in the
   1-16  estate, the court may, after two years from the date of the death
   1-17  of an incompetent ward or from the date the ward reaches the age of
   1-18  majority, remove the estate from the court's active docket without
   1-19  the necessity of a final accounting and without appointing a
   1-20  successor personal representative.  As to a ward whose whereabouts
   1-21  becomes unknown to the court for a period of four years when no
   1-22  complaint has been filed by anyone interested in the estate, the
   1-23  court may remove the estate from its active docket without a final
    2-1  accounting and without appointing a successor personal
    2-2  representative.  As to a decedent's estate, when the whereabouts of
    2-3  the personal representative and the heirs are unknown and no
    2-4  complaint has been filed by anyone interested in the estate within
    2-5  four years after letters testamentary or of administration have
    2-6  been issued, the court may close the estate without a final
    2-7  accounting and without appointing a successor personal
    2-8  representative.  Rentals <So far as applicable, this Section shall
    2-9  also govern with respect to guardians of the person.  Meantime,
   2-10  rentals> or other payments becoming due to the ward, his estate, or
   2-11  his guardian, between the date the ward's disability terminates or
   2-12  the date of the ward's death and the effective date of the
   2-13  guardian's discharge may be paid or tendered to the emancipated
   2-14  ward, his guardian, or the personal representative of the ward's
   2-15  estate, at obligor's option, and such payment or tender shall
   2-16  constitute and be an absolute discharge of such matured obligation
   2-17  for all purposes to the extent of the amount thus paid or tendered.
   2-18        SECTION 2.  This Act applies to those estates in which a
   2-19  final settlement and accounting has not been filed prior to the
   2-20  effective date of this Act.
   2-21        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-22  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-23  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-24  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-25  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.