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.