A cemetery organization may not make more than one interment in a plot unless each owner of the plot consents to the interment. Sec. 711.040. Multiple Owners of Plot Two or more owners of a plot may designate a person to represent the plot and file with the cemetery organization written notice of the designation. If notice is not filed, the cemetery organization may inter or permit an interment in the plot at the request or direction of a registered co-owner of the plot. Sec. 711.041. Access to Cemetery (a) Any person who wishes to visit a cemetery or private burial grounds for which no public ingress or egress is available shall have the right to reasonable ingress and egress for the purpose of visiting the cemetery or private burial grounds. This right of access extends only to visitation during the hours determined by the owner or owners of the lands under Subsection (b) or at a reasonable time as provided by Subsection (c) and only for purposes usually associated with cemetery visits. (b) The owner or owners of the lands surrounding the cemetery or private burial grounds may designate the routes of reasonable ingress and egress and reasonable hours of availability. (c) At a time other than the time provided by Subsection (b), the owner or owners of the lands surrounding a cemetery or private burial grounds must allow a person to enter and exit the owner’s land for the purpose of visiting the cemetery or private burial grounds if: (1) The person provides written notice to the owner or owners of the lands surrounding the cemetery or private burial grounds of the person’s visit; (2) The person provides the notice required by Subdivision (1) not later than the 14th day before the date the person wishes to visit the cemetery; and (3) The time of the visit is reasonable. (d) This section does not apply to an unverified cemetery. Sec. 711.042. Authority of Nonprofit Cemetery Organization A nonprofit cemetery organization organized by plot owners may: (1) Divide cemetery property into lots and subdivisions for cemetery purposes; (2) Charge assessments on the property for the purposes of general improvement and maintenance; and (3) Take any action, to the same extent and for the same purposes as a for-profit cemetery corporation, that is necessary to carry out the organization’s business purposes, which include the business purposes necessarily incident to the burial and disposal of human remains, including any action necessary to: (A) Convey property or other assets of the organization; (B) Borrow money; (C) Pledge or mortgage the property or other assets of the organization to secure the organization’s indebtedness or other obligations; (D) Lend money and take security for the loan in furtherance of its business purposes; and (E) Conduct any business activity or business directly or by or through one or more subsidiaries. (b) When the attorney general learns that a cemetery corporation has violated this chapter or Chapter 712, the attorney general shall serve notice of the violation on the corporation. (c) If the violation is not corrected before the 30th day after the date of the notice, the attorney general shall bring suit or quo warranto proceedings for the forfeiture of the corporation’s charter and dissolution of the corporation in a
(4) A specific description of the interment rights; (5) The purchase price; (6) The amount of fees collected and remitted in accordance with Subsection (e); and (7) Information on the disposal of the purchase agreement, including whether the agreement was conveyed, canceled, or voided. Sec. 711.039. Rights of Interment in Plot (a) A plot in which the exclusive right of sepulture is conveyed is presumed to be the separate property of the person named as grantee in the certificate of ownership or other instrument of conveyance. (b) The spouse of a person to whom the exclusive right of sepulture in a plot is conveyed has a vested right of interment of the spouse’s remains in the plot while the spouse is married to the plot owner or if the spouse is married to the plot owner at the time of the owner’s death. (c) An attempted conveyance or other action without the joinder or written, attached consent of the spouse of the plot owner does not divest the spouse of the vested right of interment. (d) The vested right of interment is terminated: (1) On the final decree of divorce between the plot owner and the owner’s former spouse unless the decree provides otherwise; or (2) When the remains of the person having the vested right are interred elsewhere. (e) Unless a plot owner who has the exclusive right of sepulture in a plot and who is interred in that plot has made a specific disposition of the plot by express reference to the plot in the owner’s will or by written declaration filed and recorded in the office of the cemetery organization: (1) A grave, niche, or crypt in the plot shall be reserved for the surviving spouse of the plot owner; and (2) The owner’s children, in order of need, may be interred in any remaining graves, niches, or crypts of the plot without the consent of a person claiming an interest in the plot. (f) The surviving spouse or a child of an interred plot owner may each waive his right of interment in the plot in favor of a relative of the owner or relative of the owner’s spouse. The person in whose favor the waiver is made may be interred in the plot. (g) The exclusive right of sepulture in an unused grave, niche, or crypt of a plot in which the plot owner has been interred may be conveyed only by: (1) Specific disposition of the unused grave, niche, or crypt by express reference to it in a will or by written declaration of the plot owner filed and recorded in the office of the cemetery organization; or (2) The surviving spouse, if any, and the heirs-at-law of the owner. (h) Unless a deceased plot owner who has the exclusive right of sepulture in a plot and who is not interred in the plot has otherwise made specific disposition of the plot, the exclusive right of sepulture in the plot, except the one grave, niche, or crypt reserved for the surviving spouse, if any, vests on the death of the owner in the owner’s heirs-at- law and may be conveyed by them. Sec. 0395. Multiple Interments in Same Plot Subchapter D. Enforcement Sec. 711. 051. Enforcement by Attorney General; Proceedings to Forfeit Charter for Noncompliance (a) A cemetery corporation that violates this chapter or Chapter 712 forfeits the corporation’s charter and right to do business in this state unless the corporation corrects the violation before the 30th day after the date of receiving notice of the violation from the attorney general.
Book Code: FTX1624
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