1-1 By: Goodman (Senate Sponsor - Harris) H.J.R. No. 36
1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House April 29, 1999;
1-3 April 30, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
1-4 Jurisprudence; May 11, 1999, reported favorably by the following
1-5 vote: Yeas 3, Nays 0; May 11, 1999, sent to printer.)
1-6 HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION
1-7 proposing a constitutional amendment permitting the conversion of
1-8 separate property to community property.
1-9 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-10 SECTION 1. Section 15, Article XVI, Texas Constitution, is
1-11 amended to read as follows:
1-12 Sec. 15. All property, both real and personal, of a spouse
1-13 owned or claimed before marriage, and that acquired afterward by
1-14 gift, devise or descent, shall be the separate property of that
1-15 spouse; and laws shall be passed more clearly defining the rights
1-16 of the spouses, in relation to separate and community property;
1-17 provided that persons about to marry and spouses, without the
1-18 intention to defraud pre-existing creditors, may by written
1-19 instrument from time to time partition between themselves all or
1-20 part of their property, then existing or to be acquired, or
1-21 exchange between themselves the community interest of one spouse or
1-22 future spouse in any property for the community interest of the
1-23 other spouse or future spouse in other community property then
1-24 existing or to be acquired, whereupon the portion or interest set
1-25 aside to each spouse shall be and constitute a part of the separate
1-26 property and estate of such spouse or future spouse; spouses also
1-27 may from time to time, by written instrument, agree between
1-28 themselves that the income or property from all or part of the
1-29 separate property then owned or which thereafter might be acquired
1-30 by only one of them, shall be the separate property of that spouse;
1-31 if one spouse makes a gift of property to the other that gift is
1-32 presumed to include all the income or property which might arise
1-33 from that gift of property; [and] spouses may agree in writing that
1-34 all or part of their community property becomes the property of the
1-35 surviving spouse on the death of a spouse; and spouses may agree in
1-36 writing that all or part of the separate property owned by either
1-37 or both of them shall be the spouses' community property.
1-38 SECTION 2. This proposed constitutional amendment shall be
1-39 submitted to the voters at an election to be held November 2, 1999.
1-40 The ballot proposition shall be printed to provide for voting for
1-41 or against the proposition: "The constitutional amendment
1-42 permitting spouses to agree to convert separate property to
1-43 community property."
1-44 * * * * *