CCS/SCS/SB 83 - This act modifies several provisions relating to court proceedings, including: (1) child relocation; (2) grandparent visitation; (3) public defenders; and (4) the "Save the Family Farm Act".CHILD RELOCATION (Section 452.377)
This act requires a party intending to relocate a child subject to a custody or visitation agreement to notify any other parties entitled to custody or visitation of their right to file a motion seeking an order to prevent the relocation and an accompanying affidavit setting forth the specific good faith factual basis for opposing the relocation within 30 days of receipt of the notice.
This provision is identical to a provision in the truly agreed to and finally passed CCS/SS/SCS/HCS/HB 397 (2019).
GRANDPARENT VISITATION (Section 452.402)
Under this act, a court may grant grandparent visitation if the grandparent has been unreasonably denied visitation for a period exceeding sixty days and one of several other scenarios has occurred. Except as otherwise provided, if the child's natural parents are legally married to each other and are living together with the child, a grandparent may not file for visitation. Before granting visitation, a court shall determine if such visitation would be in the child's best interests. This act repeals a provision of current law establishing a rebuttable presumption that married parents living with a child know what is in the best interests of the child.
This language is identical to SCS/HCS/HB 700 (2019).
PUBLIC DEFENDERS (Section 476.001 and 600.042)
This act removes a provision requiring the Director of the Public Defender's Office to prepare a plan to establish district offices, which would coincide with existing judicial circuits.
This provision is identical to HB 868 (2019) and provisions in the truly agreed to and finally passed CCS/SS/SCS/SB 230 (2019) and the truly agreed to and finally passed SS/SCS/HCS/HB 192 (2019).
"SAVE THE FAMILY FARM ACT" (Sections 528.700 to 528.750)
This act creates the "Save the Family Farm Act", creating new provisions regulating the partition of property among heirs. This act only applies to property that is determined by a court to be "heirs property", being defined as real property held in tenancy in common which satisfies all of the following: (1) there is no agreement in a record binding all the cotenants which governs the partition of the property; (2) one or more of the cotenants acquired title from a relative, whether living or deceased; and (3) any of the following apply: a) twenty percent or more of the interests are held by cotenants who are relatives; b) twenty percent or more of the interests are held by an individual who acquired title from a relative, whether living or deceased; or c) twenty percent or more of the cotenants are relatives.
Under this act, if any cotenant requests partition by sale of heirs property the court shall send notice to all other cotenants that they may buy all the interests of the cotenant requesting partition by sale. All cotenants are given 45 days to respond to the court notice. After the expiration of 45 days the following rules apply: (1) if only one cotenant elects to buy all the interests of the cotenants that requested partition by sale, the court shall notify all the parties of that fact; (2) if more than one cotenant elects to buy all the interests of the cotenants that requested partition by sale, the court shall allocate the right to buy those interests among the electing cotenants based on each electing cotenant's existing fractional ownership of the entire parcel divided by the total existing fractional ownership of all cotenants electing to buy and send notice to all the parties of that fact and of the price to be paid by each electing cotenant; (3) if no cotenant elects to buy all the interests of the cotenants that requested partition by sale, the court shall send notice to all the parties of that fact and resolve the partition action through partition in kind or partition by sale, whichever method applies as required by the act.
These provisions apply to all partition actions filed on or after August 28, 2019.
These provisions are identical to HCS/HB 919 (2019) and substantially similar to SB 286 (2019).
SARAH HASKINS