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.