1-1     By:  Ellis                                            S.B. No. 1552
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 12, 1999; March 15, 1999, read
 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Jurisprudence;
 1-4     March 23, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 4,
 1-5     Nays 0; March 23, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to removal of personal representatives of decedents'
 1-9     estates.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Subsection (a), Section 222, Texas Probate Code,
1-12     is amended to read as follows:
1-13           (a)  Without Notice.  (1)  The court, on its own motion or on
1-14     motion of any interested person, and without notice, may remove any
1-15     personal representative, appointed under provisions of this Code,
1-16     who:
1-17                       (A)  Neglects to qualify in the manner and time
1-18     required by law;
1-19                       (B)  Fails to return within ninety days after
1-20     qualification, unless such time is extended by order of the court,
1-21     an inventory of the property of the estate and list of claims that
1-22     have come to his knowledge;
1-23                       (C)  Having been required to give a new bond,
1-24     fails to do so within the time prescribed;
1-25                       (D)  Absents himself from the State for a period
1-26     of three months at one time without permission of the court, or
1-27     removes from the State;
1-28                       (E)  Cannot be served with notices or other
1-29     processes because of the fact that the:
1-30                             (i)  personal representative's [by reason
1-31     of the fact that his] whereabouts are unknown;
1-32                             (ii)  personal representative [, or by
1-33     reason of the fact that he] is eluding service; or
1-34                             (iii)  personal representative is a
1-35     nonresident of this state who does not have a resident agent to
1-36     accept service of process in any probate proceeding or other action
1-37     relating to the estate; or
1-38                       (F)  Has misapplied, embezzled, or removed from
1-39     the State, or is about to misapply, embezzle, or remove from the
1-40     State, all or any part of the property committed to the personal
1-41     representative's care.
1-42                 (2)  The court may remove a personal representative
1-43     under Paragraph (F), Subdivision (1), of this subsection only on
1-44     the presentation of clear and convincing evidence given under oath.
1-45           SECTION 2.  The changes in law made by this Act to Subsection
1-46     (a), Section 222, Texas Probate Code, apply only to a motion for
1-47     the removal of a personal representative made or filed on or after
1-48     the effective date of this Act.  A motion for the removal of a
1-49     personal representative made or filed before the effective date of
1-50     this Act is governed by the law in effect on the date the motion
1-51     was made or filed, and the former law is continued in effect for
1-52     that purpose.
1-53           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-54           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-55     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-56     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-57     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-58     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-59                                  * * * * *