By Hartnett                                           H.B. No. 2191
       74R6649 CLG-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to nontestamentary property.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 132, Texas Probate Code, is amended by
    1-5  adding Subsection (c) to read as follows:
    1-6        (c)  NONTESTAMENTARY PROPERTY.  If an interested person files
    1-7  a suit to contest the validity of a decedent's will, the court may
    1-8  make the decedent's nontestamentary real and personal property
    1-9  subject to temporary administration under this section.  A
   1-10  temporary administrator may not sell nontestamentary property.  For
   1-11  purposes of this subsection, nontestamentary real and personal
   1-12  property includes real or personal property that is subject to an
   1-13  agreement creating a right of survivorship in the property.
   1-14        SECTION 2.  Section 439(a), Texas Probate Code, is amended to
   1-15  read as follows:
   1-16        (a)  Sums remaining on deposit at the death of a party to a
   1-17  joint account belong to the surviving party or parties against the
   1-18  estate of the decedent if, by a written agreement signed by the
   1-19  party who dies, the interest of such deceased party is made to
   1-20  survive to the surviving party or parties.  Notwithstanding any
   1-21  other law other than Section 132(c) of this code, an agreement is
   1-22  sufficient to confer an absolute right of survivorship on parties
   1-23  to a joint account under this subsection if the agreement states in
   1-24  substantially the following form:  "On the death of one party to a
    2-1  joint account, all sums in the account on the date of the death
    2-2  vest in and belong to the surviving party as his or her separate
    2-3  property and estate."  A survivorship agreement will not be
    2-4  inferred from the mere fact that the account is a joint account.
    2-5  If there are two or more surviving parties, their respective
    2-6  ownerships during lifetime shall be in proportion to their previous
    2-7  ownership interests under Section 438 of this code augmented by an
    2-8  equal share for each survivor of any interest the decedent may have
    2-9  owned in the account immediately before his death, and the right of
   2-10  survivorship continues between the surviving parties if a written
   2-11  agreement signed by a party who dies so provides.
   2-12        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and the
   2-13  change in law made by Section 132(c), Texas Probate Code, as added
   2-14  by this Act, applies only to proceedings to contest the validity of
   2-15  a will that are instituted on or after the effective date of this
   2-16  Act.  A proceeding to contest the validity of a will that is
   2-17  instituted before the effective date of this Act is governed by the
   2-18  law as it existed immediately before the effective date, and that
   2-19  law is continued in effect for that purpose.
   2-20        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-21  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-22  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-23  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-24  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.