1-1     By:  Thompson (Senate Sponsor - Ellis)                H.B. No. 1136
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House March 29, 1999;
 1-3     March 30, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Jurisprudence; April 15, 1999, reported favorably by the following
 1-5     vote:  Yeas 3, Nays 0; April 15, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to fees charged for certain services performed by county
 1-9     clerks in a pending probate action.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Sections 118.056(a) and (b), Local Government
1-12     Code, are amended to read as follows:
1-13           (a)  The fees for "Services in Pending Probate Action" under
1-14     Section 118.052(2) are for services in an action in an open probate
1-15     docket rendered after the filing of an order approving the
1-16     inventory and appraisement or after the 120th [90th] day after the
1-17     date of the initial filing of the action, whichever occurs first.
1-18           (b)  The fee for filing a document also applies to each page
1-19     or part of a page for the filing of a document or exhibit filed by
1-20     a movant after the filing of an original answer or response, after
1-21     the filing of an order approving the inventory and appraisement, or
1-22     after the 120th [90th] day after the date of the initial filing of
1-23     the action, whichever occurs first, and before the filing of an
1-24     adverse action,  contest, suit, or pleading seeking affirmative
1-25     relief.
1-26           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-27     applies only to services in a probate action that are provided on
1-28     or after that date.  Services that are provided before the
1-29     effective date of this Act are governed by the law in effect at the
1-30     time the services were provided, and the former law is continued in
1-31     effect for that purpose.
1-32           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-33     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-34     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-35     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-36     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-37                                  * * * * *