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Texas Statutes (Last Updated: January 4, 2014) |
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PROBATE CODE |
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Chapter XIII. GUARDIANSHIP |
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Part 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS |
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Subpart A. DEFINITIONS; PURPOSE; APPLICABILITY; PROCEEDINGS IN REM |
Sec. 601. DEFINITIONS
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In this chapter:
(1) "Attorney ad litem" means an attorney who is appointed by a court to represent and advocate on behalf of a proposed ward, an incapacitated person, or an unborn person in a guardianship proceeding.
(2) "Authorized corporate surety" means a domestic or foreign corporation authorized to do business in this state to issue surety, guaranty, or indemnity bonds guaranteeing the fidelity of guardians.
(3) "Child" includes a biological or adopted child, whether adopted by a parent under a statutory procedure or by acts of estoppel.
(4) "Claims" includes a liability against the estate of a minor or an incapacitated person and debts due to the estate of a minor or an incapacitated person.
(5) "Community administrator" means a spouse who is authorized to manage, control, and dispose of the entire community estate on the judicial declaration of incapacity of the other spouse, including the part of the community estate that the other spouse legally has the power to manage in the absence of the incapacity.
(6) "Corporate fiduciary" means a financial institution as defined by Section 201.101, Finance Code, having trust powers, existing or doing business under the laws of this state, another state, or the United States, that is authorized by law to act under the order or appointment of any court of record, without giving bond, as a guardian, receiver, trustee, executor, or administrator, or, although without general depository powers, as a depository for any money paid into court, or to become sole guarantor or surety in or on any bond required to be given under the laws of this state.
(7) "Court investigator" means a person appointed by a statutory probate court under Section 25.0025, Government Code.
(8) "Court" or "probate court" means a county court in the exercise of its probate jurisdiction, a court created by statute and authorized to exercise original probate jurisdiction, or a district court exercising original probate jurisdiction in contested matters.
(9) "Estate" or "guardianship estate" means the real and personal property of a ward or deceased ward, both as the property originally existed and as has from time to time changed in form by sale, reinvestment, or otherwise, and as augmented by any accretions and additions to (including any property to be distributed to the representative of the deceased ward by the trustee of a trust that terminates on the ward's death) or substitutions for the property, and as diminished by any decreases to or distributions from the property.
(10) "Exempt property" refers to that property of a deceased ward's estate that is exempt from execution or forced sale by the constitution or laws of this state, and to the allowance in lieu of the property.
(11) "Guardian" means a person who is appointed guardian under Section 693 of this code, or a temporary or successor guardian. Except as expressly provided otherwise, "guardian" includes the guardian of the estate and the guardian of the person of an incapacitated person.
(12) "Guardian ad litem" means a person who is appointed by a court to represent the best interests of an incapacitated person in a guardianship proceeding.
(12-a) "Guardianship Certification Board" means the Guardianship Certification Board established under Chapter 111, Government Code.
(13) "Guardianship program" has the meaning assigned by Section 111.001, Government Code.
(14) "Incapacitated person" means:
(A) a minor;
(B) an adult individual who, because of a physical or mental condition, is substantially unable to provide food, clothing, or shelter for himself or herself, to care for the individual's own physical health, or to manage the individual's own financial affairs; or
(C) a person who must have a guardian appointed to receive funds due the person from any governmental source.
(15) "Interested persons" or "persons interested" means an heir, devisee, spouse, creditor, or any other person having a property right in, or claim against, the estate being administered or a person interested in the welfare of an incapacitated person, including a minor.
(16) "Minor" means a person who is younger than 18 years of age and who has never been married or who has not had the person's disabilities of minority removed for general purposes.
Text of subdivision as repealed by Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 602, Sec. 19 effective June 19, 2009
(17) "Minutes" means the guardianship minutes.
(18) "Mortgage" or "lien" includes a deed of trust; vendor's lien; chattel mortgage; mechanic's, materialman's, or laborer's lien; judgment, attachment, or garnishment lien; pledge by hypothecation; and a federal or state tax lien.
(19) "Next of kin" includes an adopted child, the descendants of an adopted child, and the adoptive parent of an adopted child.
(20) "Parent" means the mother of a child, a man presumed to be the biological father of a child, a man who has been adjudicated to be the biological father of a child by a court of competent jurisdiction, or an adoptive mother or father of a child, but does not include a parent as to whom the parent-child relationship has been terminated.
(21) "Person" includes natural persons, corporations, and guardianship programs.
(22) "Personal property" includes an interest in goods, money, choses in action, evidence of debts, and chattels real.
(23) "Personal representative" or "representative" includes a guardian, and a successor guardian.
(24) "Private professional guardian" has the meaning assigned by Section 111.001, Government Code.
(25) The term "guardianship proceeding" means a matter or proceeding related to a guardianship or any other matter covered by this chapter, including:
(A) the appointment of a guardian of a minor or other incapacitated person, including an incapacitated adult for whom another court obtained continuing, exclusive jurisdiction in a suit affecting the parent-child relationship when the person was a child;
(B) an application, petition, or motion regarding guardianship or an alternative to guardianship under this chapter;
(C) a mental health action; and
(D) an application, petition, or motion regarding a trust created under Section 867 of this code.
(26) "Property" includes both real and personal property.
(27) "Proposed ward" means a person alleged to be incapacitated in a guardianship proceeding.
(28) "Real property" includes estates and interests in lands, corporeal or incorporeal, legal or equitable, other than chattels real.
(29) "Statutory probate court" means a statutory court designated as a statutory probate court under Chapter 25, Government Code. A county court at law exercising probate jurisdiction is not a statutory probate court under this chapter unless the court is designated a statutory probate court under Chapter 25, Government Code.
(30) "Surety" includes a personal and a corporate surety.
(31) "Ward" is a person for whom a guardian has been appointed.
(32) The singular number includes the plural; the plural number includes the singular.
(33) The masculine gender includes the feminine and neuter.