By Hartnett                                           H.B. No. 3088

         75R2398 CLG-F                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the notice required to be given in a proceeding to

 1-3     determine heirship.

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

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Sections 50(a) and (b), Texas Probate Code, are

 1-6     amended to read as follows:

 1-7           (a)  Citation shall be served by registered or certified mail

 1-8     upon all distributees 12 years of age or older whose names and

 1-9     addresses are known, or whose names and addresses can be learned

1-10     through the exercise of reasonable diligence, provided that the

1-11     court may in its discretion require that service of citation shall

1-12     be made by personal service upon some or all of those named as

1-13     distributees in the application.  Citation shall be served as

1-14     provided by this subsection on the parent, managing conservator, or

1-15     guardian of a distributee who is younger than 12 years of age, if

1-16     the name and address of the parent, managing conservator, or

1-17     guardian is known or can be reasonably ascertained.

1-18           (b)  If the address of a person or entity on whom citation is

1-19     required to be served [Unknown heirs, and known heirs whose

1-20     addresses] cannot be ascertained, citation shall be served on the

1-21     person or entity by publication in the county in which the

1-22     proceedings are commenced, and if the decedent resided in another

1-23     county, then a citation shall also be published in the county of

1-24     his last residence.

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

 2-2     applies only to an application for determination of heirship filed

 2-3     on or after that date.  An application for determination of

 2-4     heirship filed before the effective date of this Act is governed by

 2-5     the law in existence on the date on which the application was

 2-6     filed, and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.

 2-7           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-8     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-9     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-10     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-11     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.