(a) If the court finds that there is good cause to believe that the decedent‘s surviving spouse is the principal or an accomplice in a wilful act that resulted in the decedent’s death, the court may, after notice and a hearing, limit the surviving spouse’s right to control the decedent’s burial or cremation.
(b) Subsection (a) applies:
(1) without regard to whether the decedent died intestate or testate;
(2) regardless of whether the surviving spouse is designated by the decedent’s will as the executor of the decedent’s estate; and
(3) subject to the prohibition described by § 711.002(l), Health and Safety Code.

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Terms Used In Texas Estates Code 152.102

  • 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.
  • 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
  • Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
  • Person: includes a natural person and a corporation. See Texas Estates Code 22.027
  • Testate: To die leaving a will.

(c) If the court limits the surviving spouse’s right of control as provided by Subsection (a), the court shall designate and authorize a person to make burial or cremation arrangements.