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