By Thompson                                           H.B. No. 1607
         76R3347 RJA-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the assignment of a statutory probate court judge to
 1-3     hear a contested probate matter.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 5(b), Texas Probate Code, is amended to
 1-6     read as follows:
 1-7           (b)  In those counties where there is no statutory probate
 1-8     court, county court at law or other statutory court exercising the
 1-9     jurisdiction of a probate court, all applications, petitions and
1-10     motions regarding probate and administrations shall be filed and
1-11     heard in the county court, except that in contested probate
1-12     matters, the judge of the county court may on his own motion (or
1-13     shall on the motion of any party to the proceeding, according to
1-14     the motion) request as provided by Section 25.0022, Government
1-15     Code, the assignment of a statutory probate court judge to hear the
1-16     contested portion of the proceeding, or transfer the contested
1-17     portion of the proceeding to the district court, which may then
1-18     hear contested matter as if originally filed in district court.  If
1-19     the judge of the county court has not  transferred a contested
1-20     probate matter to the district court at the time a party files a
1-21     motion for assignment of a statutory probate court judge, the
1-22     county judge shall grant the motion and may not transfer the matter
1-23     to district court unless the party withdraws the motion. A
1-24     statutory probate court judge assigned to a contested probate
 2-1     matter as provided by this subsection has for that matter the
 2-2     jurisdiction and authority granted to a statutory probate court by
 2-3     Sections 5A and 5B of this code.  The county court shall continue
 2-4     to exercise jurisdiction over the management of the estate with the
 2-5     exception of the contested matter until final disposition of the
 2-6     contested matter is made by the assigned judge or the district
 2-7     court.  In contested matters transferred to the district court in
 2-8     those counties, the district court, concurrently with the county
 2-9     court, shall have the general jurisdiction of a probate court.
2-10     Upon resolution of all pending contested matters, the contested
2-11     portion of the probate proceeding shall be transferred by the
2-12     district court to the county court for further proceedings not
2-13     inconsistent with the orders of the district court.  If a contested
2-14     portion of the proceeding is transferred to a district court under
2-15     this subsection, the clerk of the district court may perform in
2-16     relation to the transferred portion of the proceeding any function
2-17     a county clerk may perform in that type of contested proceeding.
2-18           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-19     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-20     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-21     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-22     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-23     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-24     passage, and it is so enacted.