By: Dutton (Senate Sponsor - Uresti) H.B. No. 549
(In the Senate - Received from the House March 31, 2011;
April 13, 2011, read first time and referred to Committee on
Jurisprudence; May 12, 2011, reported favorably by the following
vote: Yeas 7, Nays 0; May 12, 2011, sent to printer.)
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the disposition of a decedent's remains.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 711.002, Health and Safety Code, is
amended by amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (l) to
read as follows:
(a) Except as provided by Subsection (l), unless [Unless] a
decedent has left directions in writing for the disposition of the
decedent's remains as provided in Subsection (g), the following
persons, in the priority listed, have the right to control the
disposition, including cremation, of the decedent's remains, shall
inter the remains, and are liable for the reasonable cost of
interment:
(1) the person designated in a written instrument
signed by the decedent;
(2) the decedent's surviving spouse;
(3) any one of the decedent's surviving adult
children;
(4) either one of the decedent's surviving parents;
(5) any one of the decedent's surviving adult
siblings; or
(6) any adult person in the next degree of kinship in
the order named by law to inherit the estate of the decedent.
(l) A person listed in Subsection (a) may not control the
disposition of the decedent's remains if, in connection with the
decedent's death, an indictment has been filed charging the person
with a crime under Chapter 19, Penal Code, that involves family
violence against the decedent.
SECTION 2. Section 115(c), Texas Probate Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(c) After notice and hearing, without regard to whether the
deceased died intestate or testate, and subject to the prohibition
described by Section 711.002(l), Health and Safety Code, a court
may limit the right of a surviving spouse, whether or not the spouse
has been designated by the deceased's will as the executor of a
deceased spouse's estate, to control the burial and interment or
cremation of the deceased spouse if the court finds that there is
good cause to believe that the surviving spouse is the principal or
an accomplice in a wilful act which resulted in the death of the
deceased spouse.
SECTION 3. Section 711.002(j), Health and Safety Code, is
repealed.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2011.
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