1-1     By:  Grusendorf (Senate Sponsor - Harris)             H.B. No. 1571
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 5, 1999;
 1-3     May 6, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Administration; May 14, 1999, reported adversely, with favorable
 1-5     Committee Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 5, Nays 0;
 1-6     May 14, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-7     COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR H.B. No. 1571                  By:  Harris
 1-8                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-9                                   AN ACT
1-10     relating to the name of a decedent on a grave marker.
1-11           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-12           SECTION 1.  Section 711.002, Health and Safety Code, is
1-13     amended by amending Subsections (g) and (j) and adding Subsection
1-14     (k) to read as follows:
1-15           (g)  A person may provide written directions for the
1-16     disposition, including cremation, of the person's remains in a
1-17     will, a prepaid funeral contract, or a written instrument signed
1-18     and acknowledged by such person.  The directions may govern the
1-19     inscription to be placed on a grave marker attached to any plot in
1-20     which the decedent had the right of sepulture at the time of death
1-21     and in which plot the decedent is subsequently interred.  The
1-22     directions may be modified or revoked only by a subsequent writing
1-23     signed and acknowledged by such person.  The person otherwise
1-24     entitled to control the disposition of a decedent's remains under
1-25     this section shall faithfully carry out the directions of the
1-26     decedent to the extent that the decedent's estate or the person
1-27     controlling the disposition are financially able to do so.
1-28           (j)  In the absence of evidence of a contrary intent, it is
1-29     presumed that a married woman directs that her name, as it appears
1-30     on the grave marker for the plot in which she is interred, include
1-31     the same last name she used at the time of her death.
1-32           (k)  Any dispute among any of the persons listed in
1-33     Subsection (a) concerning their right to control the disposition,
1-34     including cremation, of a decedent's remains shall be resolved by a
1-35     court of competent jurisdiction. A cemetery organization or funeral
1-36     establishment shall not be liable for refusing to accept the
1-37     decedent's remains, or to inter or otherwise dispose of the
1-38     decedent's remains, until it receives a court order or other
1-39     suitable confirmation that the dispute has been resolved or
1-40     settled.
1-41           SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
1-42     to a grave marker attached to a plot with respect to which a
1-43     decedent interred in the plot died on or after January 1, 1998.
1-44           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-45     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-46     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-47     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-48     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-49     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-50     passage, and it is so enacted.
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