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H.B. No. 202
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.
______________________________ ______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 202 was passed by the House on April
14, 2005, by a non-record vote; and that the House concurred in
Senate amendments to H.B. No. 202 on May 19, 2005, by a non-record
vote.
______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 202 was passed by the Senate, with
amendments, on May 17, 2005, by the following vote: Yeas 31, Nays
0.
______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
APPROVED: __________________
Date
__________________
Governor