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.  Amend Section 406, Probate Code, to read as
    1-5  follows:
    1-6        Sec. 406.  Procedure in Case of Neglect or Failure to File
    1-7  Final Account; Payments Due Meantime.
    1-8        SECTION 2.  If a personal representative charged with the
    1-9  duty of filing a final account fails or neglects so to do at the
   1-10  proper time, the court may <shall>, upon its own motion, or shall,
   1-11  upon the written complaint of any one interested in the decedent's
   1-12  or ward's estate which has been administered, cause such
   1-13  representative to be cited to appear and present such account
   1-14  within the time specified in the citation.  As to a guardianship of
   1-15  a person or estate of a minor or deceased ward, when no written
   1-16  complaint has been filed by anyone interested in the estate, the
   1-17  court may, after two years from the date of the death of an
   1-18  incompetent ward or from the date the ward reaches the age of
   1-19  majority, remove the estate from the court's active docket without
   1-20  the necessity of a final accounting and without appointing a
   1-21  successor personal representative.  As to a ward whose whereabouts
   1-22  becomes unknown to the court for a period of four years, when no
   1-23  complaint has been filed by anyone interested in the estate, the
    2-1  court may remove the estate from its active docket without a final
    2-2  accounting and without appointing a successor personal
    2-3  representative.  As to a decedent's estate, when the whereabouts of
    2-4  the personal representative and heirs are unknown and no complaint
    2-5  has been filed by anyone interested in the estate within four years
    2-6  after letters testamentary of or administration have been issued,
    2-7  the court may close the estate without a final accounting and
    2-8  without appointing a successor personal representative.  <So far as
    2-9  applicable, this Section shall also govern with respect to
   2-10  guardians of the person.  Meantime, rentals> Rentals or other
   2-11  payments becoming due to the ward, his estate, or his guardian,
   2-12  between the date the ward's disability terminates or the date of
   2-13  the ward's death and the effective date of the guardian's discharge
   2-14  may be paid or tendered to the emancipated ward, his guardian, or
   2-15  the personal representative of the ward's estate, at obligor's
   2-16  option, and such payment or tender shall constitute and be an
   2-17  absolute discharge of such matured obligation for all purposes to
   2-18  the extent of the amount thus paid or tendered.
   2-19        SECTION 3.  This Act applies to those estates in which a
   2-20  final settlement and accounting has not been filed prior to the
   2-21  effective date of this Act.
   2-22        SECTION 4.  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.