Texas Estates Code 151.004 – Delivery of Document Without Court Order
(a) Subject to Subsection (c), a person who permits an examination of a decedent‘s document or safe deposit box under Section 151.003 may deliver:
(1) a document appearing to be the decedent’s will to:
(A) the clerk of a court that:
(i) has probate jurisdiction; and
(ii) is located in the county in which the decedent resided; or
(B) a person named in the document as an executor of the decedent’s estate;
(2) a document appearing to be a deed to a burial plot in which the decedent is to be buried, or appearing to give burial instructions, to the person conducting the examination; or
(3) a document appearing to be an insurance policy on the decedent’s life to a beneficiary named in the policy.
(b) A person who has leased a safe deposit box to the decedent shall keep a copy of a document delivered by the person under Subsection (a)(1) until the fourth anniversary of the date of delivery.
Terms Used In Texas Estates Code 151.004
- Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
- Court: means and includes:
(1) a county court in the exercise of its probate jurisdiction;
(2) a court created by statute and authorized to exercise original probate jurisdiction; and
(3) a district court exercising original probate jurisdiction in a contested matter. See Texas Estates Code 22.007 - Decedent: A deceased person.
- Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
- Estate: means a decedent's property, as that property:
(1) exists originally and as the property changes in form by sale, reinvestment, or otherwise;
(2) is augmented by any accretions and other additions to the property, including any property to be distributed to the decedent's representative by the trustee of a trust that terminates on the decedent's death, and substitutions for the property; and
(3) is diminished by any decreases in or distributions from the property. See Texas Estates Code 22.012 - Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Person: includes a natural person and a corporation. See Texas Estates Code 22.027
- Probate: Proving a will
(c) A person may not deliver a document under Subsection (a) unless the person examining the document:
(1) requests delivery of the document; and
(2) issues a receipt for the document to the person delivering the document.