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."
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