By:  Goodman (Senate Sponsor - Harris)                            H.B. No. 202
	(In the Senate - Received from the House April 18, 2005; 
April 19, 2005, read first time and referred to Committee on 
Jurisprudence; May 6, 2005, reported adversely, with favorable 
Committee Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 7, Nays 0; 
May 6, 2005, sent to printer.)


COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR H.B. No. 202                                    By:  Harris


A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT


relating to certain marital property agreements.                            
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	SECTION 1.  Section 4.102, Family Code, is amended to read as 
follows:       
	Sec. 4.102.  PARTITION OR EXCHANGE OF COMMUNITY PROPERTY.  
At any time, the spouses may partition or exchange between 
themselves all or part of their community property, then existing 
or to be acquired, as the spouses may desire.  Property or a 
property interest transferred to a spouse by a partition or 
exchange agreement becomes that spouse's separate property.  The 
partition or exchange of property may also provide that [includes] 
future earnings and income arising from the transferred property 
shall be [as] the separate property of the owning spouse [unless the 
spouses agree in a record that the future earnings and income will 
be community property after the partition or exchange].
	SECTION 2.  Section 4.104, Family Code, is amended to read as 
follows:       
	Sec. 4.104.  FORMALITIES.  A partition or exchange agreement 
under Section 4.102 or an agreement under Section 4.103 must be in 
writing and signed by both parties.  Either agreement is 
enforceable without consideration.
	SECTION 3.  Subchapter G, Chapter 6, Family Code, is amended 
by adding Section 6.604 to read as follows:
	Sec. 6.604.  INFORMAL SETTLEMENT CONFERENCE.  (a)  The 
parties to a suit for dissolution of a marriage may agree to one or 
more informal settlement conferences and may agree that the 
settlement conferences may be conducted with or without the 
presence of the parties' attorneys, if any.
	(b)  A written settlement agreement reached at an informal 
settlement conference is binding on the parties if the agreement:
		(1)  provides, in a prominently displayed statement 
that is in boldfaced type or in capital letters or underlined, that 
the agreement is not subject to revocation;
		(2)  is signed by each party to the agreement; and                     
		(3)  is signed by the party's attorney, if any, who is 
present at the time the agreement is signed.
	(c)  If a written settlement agreement meets the 
requirements of Subsection (b), a party is entitled to judgment on 
the settlement agreement notwithstanding Rule 11, Texas Rules of 
Civil Procedure, or another rule of law.
	(d)  If the court finds that the terms of the written 
informal settlement agreement are just and right, those terms are 
binding on the court.  If the court approves the agreement, the 
court may set forth the agreement in full or incorporate the 
agreement by reference in the final decree.
	(e)  If the court finds that the terms of the written 
informal settlement agreement are not just and right, the court may 
request the parties to submit a revised agreement or set the case 
for a contested hearing.
	SECTION 4.  The changes in law made by this Act to Sections 
4.102 and 4.104, Family Code, apply only to agreements made on or 
after the effective date of this Act.  An agreement made before the 
effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the 
date the agreement was made, and the former law is continued in 
effect for that purpose.
	SECTION 5.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.                           



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