By:  Lindsay                                           S.B. No. 869
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to incapacitated persons, wards, and proposed wards.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subsections (c), (d), and (f), Section 633, Texas
 1-5     Probate Code, are amended to read as follows:
 1-6           (c)  The sheriff or other officer shall personally serve
 1-7     citation to appear and answer the application for guardianship on:
 1-8                 (1)  a proposed ward who is 12 years of age or older;
 1-9                 (2)  the parents of a proposed ward if the whereabouts
1-10     of the parents are known or can be reasonably ascertained;
1-11                 (3)  any court-appointed conservator or person having
1-12     control of the care and welfare of the proposed ward; [and]
1-13                 (4)  a proposed ward's spouse if the whereabouts of the
1-14     spouse are known or can be reasonably ascertained; and
1-15                 (5) [(6)]  the person named in the application to be
1-16     appointed guardian, if that person is not the applicant.
1-17           (d)  The court clerk, at the applicant's request, or the
1-18     applicant shall mail a copy of the notice by registered or
1-19     certified mail, return receipt requested, to the following persons
1-20     if their whereabouts are known or can be reasonably ascertained:
1-21                 (1)  [all adult siblings and] all adult children of a
1-22     proposed ward;
1-23                 (2)  all adult siblings of a proposed ward;
1-24                 (3)  the administrator of a nursing home facility or
1-25     similar facility in which the proposed ward resides;
 2-1                 (4) [(3)]  the operator of a residential facility in
 2-2     which the proposed ward resides;
 2-3                 (5) [(4)]  a person whom the applicant knows to hold a
 2-4     power of attorney signed by the proposed ward;
 2-5                 (6) [(5)]  a person designated to serve as guardian of
 2-6     the proposed ward by a written declaration under Section 679 of
 2-7     this code, if the applicant knows of the existence of the
 2-8     declaration;
 2-9                 (7) [(6)]  a person designated to serve as guardian of
2-10     the proposed ward in the probated will of the last surviving parent
2-11     of the ward; and
2-12                 (8) [(7)]  a person designated to serve as guardian of
2-13     the proposed ward by a written declaration of the proposed ward's
2-14     last surviving parent, if the declarant is deceased and the
2-15     applicant knows of the existence of the declaration.
2-16           (f)  The court may not act on an application for the creation
2-17     of a guardianship until the Monday following the expiration of the
2-18     10-day period beginning the date service of notice and citation has
2-19     been made as provided by Subsections (b), (c), and (d)(1) of this
2-20     section.  The validity of a guardianship created under this chapter
2-21     is not affected by the failure of the clerk or applicant to comply
2-22     with the requirements of Subsections (d)(2)-(8) [(d)(2)-(7)] of
2-23     this section.
2-24           SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act to Subsection
2-25     (c), Section 633, Texas Probate Code, applies only to an
2-26     application for the appointment of a guardian filed on or after the
 3-1     effective date of this Act.  An application for the appointment of
 3-2     a guardian that is filed before the effective date of this Act is
 3-3     governed by the law in effect on the date on which the application
 3-4     was filed, and the former law is continued in effect for that
 3-5     purpose.
 3-6           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2001.