By Hartnett                                           H.B. No. 2580
         76R6358 KLA-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the transfer of certain proceedings to a statutory
 1-3     probate court.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 5B, Texas Probate Code, is amended to
 1-6     read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 5B.  TRANSFER OF PROCEEDING.  A judge of a statutory
 1-8     probate court, on the motion of a party to the action or on the
 1-9     motion of a person interested in an estate, may transfer to his
1-10     court from a district, county, or statutory court a cause of action
1-11     appertaining to or incident to an estate pending in the statutory
1-12     probate court or a cause of action in which a personal
1-13     representative of an estate pending in the statutory probate court
1-14     is a party and may consolidate the transferred cause of action with
1-15     the other proceedings in the statutory probate court relating to
1-16     that estate.
1-17           SECTION 2.  Section 608, Texas Probate Code, is amended to
1-18     read as follows:
1-19           Sec. 608.  TRANSFER OF GUARDIANSHIP PROCEEDING.  A judge of a
1-20     statutory probate court, on the motion of a party to the action or
1-21     of a person interested in a guardianship, may transfer to the
1-22     judge's court from a district, county, or statutory court a cause
1-23     of action appertaining to or incident to a guardianship estate that
1-24     is pending in the statutory probate court or a cause of action in
 2-1     which a  personal representative of an estate pending in the
 2-2     statutory probate court is a party and may consolidate the
 2-3     transferred cause of action with the other proceedings in the
 2-4     statutory probate court relating to the guardianship estate.
 2-5           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
 2-6     applies only to a motion to transfer a cause of action filed on or
 2-7     after that date.  A motion to transfer a cause of action filed
 2-8     before the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in
 2-9     effect on the date the motion was filed, and the former law is
2-10     continued in effect for that purpose.
2-11           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-12     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-13     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-14     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-15     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.