By: Hinojosa S.B. No. 1216
(In the Senate - Filed March 9, 2005; March 21, 2005, read
first time and referred to Committee on Jurisprudence;
April 14, 2005, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 4,
Nays 1; April 14, 2005, sent to printer.)
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to a statutory probate court judge's authority to transfer
certain proceedings from another court to the statutory probate
court.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 5B, Texas Probate Code, is amended by
adding Subsection (c) to read as follows:
(c) Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter or a
provision of Chapter 15, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, a judge
of a statutory probate court may transfer a cause of action
described by Subsection (a) of this section from a court to the
statutory probate court as provided by Subsection (a) even if venue
for the action is proper or mandatory in the county of the court
from which the action is to be transferred.
SECTION 2. Section 608, Texas Probate Code, is amended to
read as follows:
Sec. 608. TRANSFER OF GUARDIANSHIP PROCEEDING. (a) A
judge of a statutory probate court, on the motion of a party to the
action or of a person interested in a guardianship, may transfer to
the judge's court from a district, county, or statutory court a
cause of action appertaining to or incident to a guardianship
estate that is pending in the statutory probate court or a cause of
action relating to a guardianship in which a guardian, ward, or
proposed ward in a guardianship pending in the statutory probate
court is a party and may consolidate the transferred cause of action
with the other proceedings in the statutory probate court relating
to the guardianship estate.
(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter or a
provision of Chapter 15, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, a judge
of a statutory probate court may transfer a cause of action
described by Subsection (a) of this section from a court to the
statutory probate court as provided by Subsection (a) even if venue
for the action is proper or mandatory in the county of the court
from which the action is to be transferred.
SECTION 3. (a) The changes in law made by this Act to
Sections 5B and 608, Texas Probate Court, apply to all actions:
(1) commenced on or after the effective date of this
Act; or
(2) pending on the effective date of this Act and in
which the trial, or any new trial or retrial following motion,
appeal, or otherwise, begins on or after that effective date.
(b) For an action that is commenced before the effective
date of this Act, a trial, new trial, or retrial that is in progress
on the effective date is governed by the law applicable to that
trial, new trial, or retrial immediately before that date, and that
law is continued in effect for that purpose.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.
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