(36) “Unknown cemetery” means an abandoned cemetery evidenced by the presence of marked or unmarked graves that does not appear on a map or in deed records. (37) “Unmarked grave” means the immediate area where one or more human interments are found that: (A) Is not in a recognized and maintained cemetery; (B) Is not owned or operated by a cemetery organization; (C) Is not marked by a tomb, monument, gravestone, or other structure or thing placed or designated as a memorial of the dead; or (D) Is located on land designated as agricultural, timber, recreational, park, or scenic land under Chapter 23, Tax Code. (38) “Unverified cemetery” means a location having some evidence of interment but in which the presence of one or more unmarked graves has not been verified by a person described by Section 711.0105(a) or by the Texas Historical Commission. Sec. 711.002. Disposition of Remains; Duty to Inter (a) Except as provided by Subsection (l), unless a decedent has left directions in writing for the disposition of the decedent’s remains as provided in Subsection (g), the following persons, in the priority listed, have the right to control the disposition, including cremation, of the decedent’s remains, shall inter the remains, and in accordance with Subsection (a-3) are liable for the reasonable cost of interment: (1) The person designated in a written instrument signed by the decedent; (2) The decedent’s surviving spouse; (3) Any one of the decedent’s surviving adult children; (4) Either one of the decedent’s surviving parents; (5) Any one of the decedent’s surviving adult siblings; (6) Any one or more of the duly qualified executors or administrators of the decedent’s estate; or (7) Any adult person in the next degree of kinship in the order named by law to inherit the estate of the decedent. (a-1) If the person with the right to control the disposition of the decedent’s remains fails to make final arrangements or appoint another person to make final arrangements for the disposition before the earlier of the 6th day after the date the person received notice of the decedent’s death or the 10th day after the date the decedent died, the person is presumed to be unable or unwilling to control the disposition, and: (1) The person’s right to control the disposition is terminated; and (2) The right to control the disposition is passed to the following persons in the following priority: (A) Any other person in the same priority class under Subsection (a) as the person whose right was terminated; or (B) A person in a different priority class, in the priority listed in Subsection (a). (a-2) If a United States Department of Defense Record of Emergency Data, DD Form 93, or a successor form, was in effect at the time of death for a decedent who died in a manner described by 10 U.S.C. Sections 1481(a) (1) through (8), the DD Form 93 controls over any other written instrument described by Subsection (a)(1) or (g) with respect to designating a person to control the disposition of the decedent’s remains. Notwithstanding Subsections (b) and (c), the form is legally sufficient if it is properly completed, signed by the decedent, and witnessed in the manner required by the form.
(13) “Crematory” means a structure containing a furnace used or intended to be used for the cremation of human remains. (14) “Crematory and columbarium” means a durable, fireproof structure containing both a crematory and columbarium. (15) “Crypt” means a chamber in a mausoleum of sufficient size to inter human remains. (16) “Directors” means the governing body of a cemetery organization. (17) “Entombment” means interment in a crypt. (18) “Funeral establishment” means a place of business used in the care and preparation for interment or transportation of human remains, or any place where one or more persons, either as sole owner, in copartnership, or through corporate status, are engaged or represent themselves to be engaged in the business of embalming or funeral directing. (19) “Grave” means a space of ground that contains interred human remains or is in a burial park and that is used or intended to be used for interment of human remains in the ground. (20) “Human remains” means the body of a decedent. (21) “Interment” means the permanent disposition of remains by entombment, burial, or placement in a niche. (22) “Interment right” means the right to inter the remains of one decedent in a plot. (23) “Inurnment” means the placement of cremated remains in an urn. (24) “Lawn crypt” means a subsurface receptacle installed in multiple units for ground burial of human remains. (25) “Mausoleum” means a durable, fireproof structure used or intended to be used for entombment. (26) “Memorial” means a headstone, tombstone, gravestone, monument, or other marker denoting a grave. (27) “Niche” means a space in a columbarium or cremains receptacle used or intended to be used for the placement of cremated remains in an urn or other container. (28) “Nonperpetual care cemetery” means a cemetery that is not a perpetual care cemetery. (29) “Perpetual care” or “endowment care” means the maintenance, repair, and care of all places in the cemetery. (30) “Perpetual care cemetery” or “endowment care cemetery” means a cemetery for the benefit of which a perpetual care trust fund is established as provided by Chapter 712. (31) “Plot” means space in a cemetery owned by an individual or organization that is used or intended to be used for interment, including a grave or adjoining graves, a crypt or adjoining crypts, a lawn crypt or adjoining lawn crypts, or a niche or adjoining niches. (32) “Plot owner” means a person: (A) In whose name a plot is listed in a cemetery organization’s office as the owner of the exclusive right of sepulture; or (B) Who holds, from a cemetery organization, a certificate of ownership or other instrument of conveyance of the exclusive right of sepulture in a particular plot in the organization’s cemetery. (33) “Prepaid funeral contract” means a written contract providing for prearranged or prepaid funeral services or funeral merchandise. (34) “Remains” means either human remains or cremated remains. (35) “Unidentified grave” means a grave that is not marked in a manner that provides the identity of the interment.
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Book Code: FTX1625
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