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.