Estates Code › Title 2 › Chapter 152 › Subchapter C

Texas Estates Code § 152.101

Application Authorized

Emergency Intervention · Limitation on Right of Decedent's Surviving Spouse to Control Decedent's Burial or Cremation

(a) The executor of a decedent's will or the decedent's next of kin may file an application for an order limiting the right of the decedent's surviving spouse to control the decedent's burial or cremation.

(b) For purposes of Subsection (a), the decedent's next of kin:

(1) is determined in accordance with order of descent, with the person nearest in order of descent first, and so on; and

(2) includes the decedent's descendants who legally adopted the decedent or who have been legally adopted by the decedent.

(c) An application under this section must be under oath and must establish:

(1) whether the decedent died intestate or testate;

(2) that the surviving spouse is alleged to be a principal or accomplice in a wilful act that resulted in the decedent's death; and

(3) that good cause exists to limit the surviving spouse's right to control the decedent's burial or cremation.

Official text of the Texas Estates Code as published by the Texas Legislative Council.

Official source
Legislative history

Added by Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 680 (H.B. 2502), Sec. 1, eff. January 1, 2014.