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.