HBA-JLV H.B. 2152 77(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 2152 By: Averitt Judicial Affairs 7/10/2001 Enrolled BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The Texas Probate Code provided that a devise or bequest made to an attorney, an attorney's heir, or an employee of the attorney who prepared or supervised the preparation of a will was void. However, a person who made a bequest and was related within the second degree of consanguinity or affinity to the testator was excepted from this provision. While the statute itself applies to devises or bequests, the exception only applied to bequests and could have been construed to disallow any gift of real estate to the spouse or child of the attorney. In addition, gifts to great grandchildren of the testator were disallowed by prior statutes, if those great grandchildren were the heirs of the attorney preparing the will because they were not within the second degree of consanguinity. House Bill 2152 includes the testator's spouse, an ascendant or descendant of the testator, or a person that is related within the third degree by consanguinity or affinity to the testator among persons allowed to make a valid devise or bequest to an attorney. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS House Bill 2152 amends the Probate Code to provide that a person who makes a devise or bequest to a person who is the testator's spouse, an ascendant or descendant of the testator, or is related within the third degree, instead of second degree, by consanguinity or affinity to the testator, is exempted from provisions providing that such devises and bequests are void. EFFECTIVE DATE June 11, 2001.