1-1     By:  Sibley                                           S.B. No. 1860
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed April 13, 1999; April 14, 1999, read
 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Jurisprudence;
 1-4     April 27, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 4,
 1-5     Nays 0; April 27, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the validity of certain devises or bequests.
 1-9           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-10           SECTION 1.  Section 58b, Texas Probate Code, is amended to
1-11     read as follows:
1-12           Sec. 58b.  Devises and Bequests That Are Void.  (a)  A devise
1-13     or bequest of property in a will to an attorney who prepares or
1-14     supervises the preparation of the will or a devise or bequest of
1-15     property in a will to an heir or employee of the attorney who
1-16     prepares or supervises the preparation of the will is void.
1-17           (b)  This section does not apply to:
1-18                 (1)  a devise or bequest made to a person who is:
1-19                       (A)  a spouse of the testator;
1-20                       (B)  a descendant of the testator in any degree;
1-21                       (C)  an ascendant of the testator in any degree;
1-22     or
1-23                       (D)  related within the third [second] degree by
1-24     consanguinity or affinity to the testator; or[, nor to]
1-25                 (2)  a bona fide purchaser for value from a devisee in
1-26     a will.
1-27           SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act applies only to a will executed on
1-28     or after the effective date of this Act.
1-29           (b)  A will executed before the effective date of this Act is
1-30     governed by the law in effect on the date the will was executed,
1-31     and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
1-32           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-33     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-34     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-35     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-36     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-37     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-38     passage, and it is so enacted.
1-39                                  * * * * *