By Reyna of Bexar H.B. No. 881
75R3711 BEM-F
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the priority of payment of claims against a decedent's
1-3 estate.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 320(a), Texas Probate Code, is amended to
1-6 read as follows:
1-7 (a) Priority of Payments. Personal representatives, when
1-8 they have funds in their hands belonging to the estate, shall pay
1-9 in the following order:
1-10 (1) Funeral expenses [and expenses of last sickness,]
1-11 in an amount not to exceed Five Thousand Dollars and expenses of
1-12 last sickness in an amount not to exceed Twenty-five Thousand
1-13 Dollars.
1-14 (2) Allowances made to the surviving spouse and
1-15 children, or to either.
1-16 (3) Expenses of administration and the expenses
1-17 incurred in the preservation, safekeeping, and management of the
1-18 estate.
1-19 (4) Other claims against the estate in the order of
1-20 their classification.
1-21 SECTION 2. Section 322, Texas Probate Code, is amended to
1-22 read as follows:
1-23 Sec. 322. CLASSIFICATION OF CLAIMS AGAINST ESTATES OF
1-24 DECEDENT. Claims against an estate of a decedent shall be
2-1 classified and have priority of payment, as follows:
2-2 Class 1. Funeral expenses and expenses of last sickness for
2-3 a reasonable amount to be approved by the court, not to exceed a
2-4 total of Thirty Thousand Dollars [Five Thousand Dollars], with any
2-5 excess to be classified and paid as other unsecured claims.
2-6 Class 2. Expenses of administration and expenses incurred in
2-7 the preservation, safekeeping, and management of the estate.
2-8 Class 3. Secured claims for money under Section 306(a)(1),
2-9 including tax liens, so far as the same can be paid out of the
2-10 proceeds of the property subject to such mortgage or other lien,
2-11 and when more than one mortgage, lien, or security interest shall
2-12 exist upon the same property, they shall be paid in order of their
2-13 priority.
2-14 Class 4. Claims for taxes, penalties, and interest due under
2-15 Title 2, Tax Code; Chapter 8, Title 132, Revised Statutes; Section
2-16 81.111, Natural Resources Code; the Municipal Sales and Use Tax
2-17 Act (Chapter 321, Tax Code); Section 451.404, Transportation Code
2-18 [Section 11B, Chapter 141, Acts of the 63rd Legislature, Regular
2-19 Session, 1973 (Article 1118x, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes)]; or
2-20 Subchapter I, Chapter 452, Transportation Code [Section 16, Chapter
2-21 683, Acts of the 66th Legislature, Regular Session, 1979 (Article
2-22 1118y, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes)].
2-23 Class 5. Claims for the cost of confinement established by
2-24 the institutional division of the Texas Department of Criminal
2-25 Justice under Section 501.017, Government Code.
2-26 Class 6. Claims for repayment of medical assistance payments
2-27 made by the state under Chapter 32, Human Resources Code, to or for
3-1 the benefit of the decedent.
3-2 Class 7. All other claims.
3-3 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and
3-4 applies only to the estate of a person who dies on or after that
3-5 date. The estate of a person who dies before the effective date of
3-6 this Act is governed by the law in effect at the time of the
3-7 person's death and that law is continued in effect for that
3-8 purpose.
3-9 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
3-10 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-11 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-12 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-13 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.