BILL ANALYSIS H.B. 336 By: Goodman (Harris) Jurisprudence 5-17-95 Senate Committee Report (Unamended) BACKGROUND Title 1 of the Family Code relates to the inception of termination of the marriage relationship, the rights and duties of husband and wife, and the property rights and liabilities of the married parties. The Joint Interim Committee on the Family Code made several recommendations regarding Title 1. PURPOSE As proposed, H.B. 336 clarifies provisions regarding common-law marriages. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 1.91(b), Family Code, to provide that if a proceeding in which a marriage is to be proved under Subsection (a)(2) is not commenced before the second anniversary of the date on which the parties separated and ceased living together, rather than not later than one year after the relationship ended or one year after September 1, 1989, it is rebuttably presumed that the parties did not enter into an agreement to be married. SECTION 2. (a) Effective date: September 1, 1995. (b) Makes application of this Act prospective. (c) Provides that the change made by this Act does not permit an action to be commenced on or after the effective date of this Act to prove the existence of an informal marriage for which an action was barred before the effective date for failure to bring the action before the first anniversary of the date the relationship ended. SECTION 3. Emergency clause.