83R877 JSC-D
By: Dutton H.J.R. No. 53
A JOINT RESOLUTION
proposing a constitutional amendment authorizing a court to
partition the community property and to characterize future
earnings of spouses as separate property on legal separation of the
spouses.
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 15, Article XVI, Texas Constitution, is
amended to read as follows:
Sec. 15. (a) All property, both real and personal, of a
spouse owned or claimed before marriage, and that acquired
afterward by gift, devise or descent, shall be the separate
property of that spouse; and laws shall be passed more clearly
defining the rights of the spouses, in relation to separate and
community property; provided that persons about to marry and
spouses, without the intention to defraud pre-existing creditors,
may by written instrument from time to time partition between
themselves all or part of their property, then existing or to be
acquired, or exchange between themselves the community interest of
one spouse or future spouse in any property for the community
interest of the other spouse or future spouse in other community
property then existing or to be acquired, whereupon the portion or
interest set aside to each spouse shall be and constitute a part of
the separate property and estate of such spouse or future spouse;
spouses also may from time to time, by written instrument, agree
between themselves that the income or property from all or part of
the separate property then owned or which thereafter might be
acquired by only one of them, shall be the separate property of that
spouse; if one spouse makes a gift of property to the other that
gift is presumed to include all the income or property which might
arise from that gift of property; spouses may agree in writing that
all or part of their community property becomes the property of the
surviving spouse on the death of a spouse; and spouses may agree in
writing that all or part of the separate property owned by either or
both of them shall be the spouses' community property.
(b) In a legal separation proceeding, a court may
permanently partition the community property of the spouses to
provide that the property itself and the future income from that
property is the separate property of a spouse, and may allocate
future earnings of each spouse as the separate property of that
spouse. Laws shall be passed clearly defining the nature of
property on legal separation of the spouses.
SECTION 2. This proposed constitutional amendment shall be
submitted to the voters at an election to be held November 5, 2013.
The ballot shall be printed to permit voting for or against the
proposition: "The constitutional amendment authorizing a court to
partition the community property and to characterize future
earnings of spouses as separate property on legal separation of the
spouses."