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.