Pennsylvania Act 1992-110 — CEMETERY COMPANIES - INTERMENT RIGHTS, RESTORE AND MAINTAIN

Act text

CEMETERY COMPANIES - INTERMENT RIGHTS, RESTORE AND MAINTAIN
                 Act of Nov. 24, 1992, P.L. 730, No. 110              Cl. 09
                                  AN ACT

        Providing cemetery companies or associations with the right
     to inter a dead human body in a ground space, a mausoleum, a
     columbarium or a niche to which interment rights have been
     abandoned; and encouraging caretaker organizations to assume
     responsibility for restoration and maintenance of historic
     burial places by limiting liability in connection therewith.

        The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
     hereby enacts as follows:

     Section 1.  Abandoned interment rights.
        (a)  General rule.--When interment rights that have been
     granted by a cemetery company or association are not used for a
     period of 50 years or more, they shall be deemed abandoned and
     shall revert to the cemetery company or association if the
     procedure in subsection (b) is followed.
        (b)  Procedure.--A cemetery company or association shall send
     a registered return receipt letter to the owner of record, his
     or her heirs or assigns or any next of kin known to the cemetery
     company or association of the interment rights at his or her
     last known address requesting the owner's current address or the
     names and addresses of the heirs or assigns of the owner of
     record. If a written response is received, the records of the
     cemetery company or association shall be amended accordingly,
     and the interment rights shall not be deemed abandoned. The
     receipt of this written response shall guarantee the interment
     rights may not be deemed abandoned for 50 years from the date
     the written response was received by the cemetery company or
     association. If the registered letter is undeliverable or if no
     response is received within 30 days after the registered letter
     was sent, the cemetery company or association shall advertise a
     notice of its intent to declare the rights deemed abandoned in a
     newspaper of general circulation in the county where the
     cemetery is located and also in the county of the last known
     address of the owner of record, which notice shall contain the
     name and business address of the cemetery and the name of the
     last owner of record. If no response to the notice of intent to
     declare the interment rights abandoned is made on behalf of the
     owner of record or his or her heirs or assigns within 120 days,
     the interment right shall be deemed abandoned and shall revert
     to the cemetery company or association. If a written response is
     received, the receipt of this response shall guarantee the
     interment rights may not be deemed abandoned for 50 years from
     the date the written response was received by the cemetery
     company or association.
        (c)  Rights of owner of record.--If, within 30 years after
     the interment right has been abandoned, the owner of record or
     his or her heirs or assigns can prove to a cemetery company or
     association or a court of competent jurisdiction that he or she
     is entitled to the interment right, the cemetery company or
     association shall, at no cost, provide a right of interment
     similar to the one that was abandoned.
     Section 2.  Historic burial places.
        (a)  Purpose.--The purpose of this act is to encourage
     caretaker organizations to restore and maintain historic burial
     places by limiting their liability toward persons entering such
     burial places.
        (b)  General rule.--Except as provided in subsection (d), a
     caretaker organization or a landowner owes no duty of care to
     keep a historic burial place safe for entry or use by others or
     to give any warning of a dangerous condition, use, structure or
     activity on the premises of the historic burial place to persons
     who enter the premises. ((b) amended Dec. 20, 1995, P.L.664,
     No.73)
        (c)  Limitations.--Except as provided in subsection (d), a
     caretaker organization or a landowner which either directly or
     indirectly invites or permits any person to enter the premises
     of the historic burial place without charge does not thereby:
            (1)  Extend any assurance that the premises are safe for
        any purpose.
            (2)  Confer upon such person the legal status of an
        invitee or licensee to whom a duty of care is owed.
            (3)  Assume responsibility for or incur liability for any
        injury to persons or property by an act of omission of such
        persons.
        ((c) amended Dec. 20, 1995, P.L.664, No.73)
        (d)  Willful or malicious actions.--Nothing in this act
     limits in any way any liability which otherwise exists for
     willful or malicious failure to guard or warn against a
     dangerous condition, use, structure or activity on the premises
     of a historic burial place.
        (e)  Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be
     construed to:
            (1)  Create a duty of care or ground of liability for
        injury to persons or property.
            (2)  Relieve any person entering upon the premises of a
        historic burial place from any obligation which he may have
        in the absence of this act to exercise care in his use of the
        premises and in his activities on the premises or from the
        legal consequences of failure to employ such care.
        (f)  Definitions.--As used in this section, the following
     words and phrases shall have the meanings given to them in this
     subsection:
        "Caretaker organization."  A nonprofit organization under
     section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 (68A
     Stat. 3, 26 U.S.C. § 501(c)(3)) which owns or otherwise assumes
     responsibility for the restoration and maintenance of a historic
     burial place.
        "Historic burial place."  A tract of land that has been in
     existence as a burial ground for more than 100 years wherein
     there have been no burials for at least 50 years and wherein
     there will be no future burials.
        "Landowner."  A person, other than a caretaker organization,
     who owns in fee the real property which comprises a historic
     burial place and who permits a caretaker organization to restore
     and maintain the historic burial place.
        ((f) amended Dec. 20, 1995, P.L.664, No.73)
     Section 3.  Effective date.
        This act shall take effect immediately.