By Naishtat                                     H.B. No. 1313

      75R2435 MWV-F                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the Probate Court No. 1 of Travis County.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.   Sections 25.2293(b) and (d), Government Code,

 1-5     are amended  to read as follows:

 1-6           (b)  A statutory probate court has:

 1-7                 (1)  general jurisdiction, concurrent with the

 1-8     jurisdiction of the county court, to hear and determine all

 1-9     actions, cases, matters, or proceedings instituted under Subtitle

1-10     D, Title 7, Health and Safety Code; and

1-11                 (2)  concurrent jurisdiction with the district court in

1-12     all actions:

1-13                       (A)  by or against a personal representative

1-14     whether the matter is appertaining to or incident to an estate; and

1-15                       (B)  involving an inter vivos trust whether the

1-16     matter is appertaining to or incident to an estate.

1-17           (d)  A statutory probate court may exercise the pendent and

1-18     ancillary jurisdiction necessary to promote judicial efficiency and

1-19     economy.  A judge of a statutory probate court on the motion of a

1-20     party to the action or on the motion of a person interested in an

1-21     estate may [, with the consent of the judge in whose court the case

1-22     is pending,] transfer to the judge's court from a district, county,

1-23     or other statutory court a cause of action appertaining to or

1-24     incident to an estate pending in the statutory probate court or a

 2-1     cause of action in which a personal representative, acting in the

 2-2     capacity of a personal representative, of an estate pending in a

 2-3     statutory probate court is a party and may consolidate the

 2-4     transferred cause of action with the other proceedings in the

 2-5     statutory probate court relating to that estate.

 2-6           SECTION 2.   This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

 2-7     Section 25.2293(d), Government Code, as amended by this Act,

 2-8     applies to a motion to transfer a proceeding to the Probate Court

 2-9     No. 1 of Travis County filed on or after the effective date of this

2-10     Act.  A motion to transfer a proceeding filed before the effective

2-11     date of this Act is governed by the law in existence on the date

2-12     the motion was filed and that law is continued in effect for that

2-13     purpose.

2-14           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-15     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-16     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-17     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-18     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.