By Hartnett                                      H.B. No. 891

      75R840 JMM-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the age of a person who may be married without

 1-3     formalities.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 1.91, Family Code, is amended by adding

 1-6     Subsection (c) to read as follows:

 1-7           (c)  A person under 17 years of age may not:

 1-8                 (1)  be a party to an informal marriage; or

 1-9                 (2)  execute a declaration of informal marriage under

1-10     Section 1.92.

1-11           SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act, as it relates

1-12     to a suit brought to prove the existence of an informal marriage,

1-13     applies only to a suit commenced on or after the effective date of

1-14     this Act.  A suit commenced before that date is governed by the law

1-15     in effect on the date the suit was filed, and the former law is

1-16     continued in effect for that purpose.

1-17           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-18     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-19     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-20     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-21     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-22     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-23     passage, and it is so enacted.