1. Liability for Funeral Expenses

2. Sources for Payment  Liability of the Estate: Primary Obligor Reasonableness of the Funeral Bill Collection Against the Estate

3. Liability for Funeral Expenses (cont’d)  Dependent  Contractual Liability  Liability of Executor/Administrator  Liability of the State (NJSA 40A-49.1)

4. Cemeteries Purpose

5. Cemetery  Not a “nuisance per se”.  Grave vs. Plot/Lot  30 – 40 square feet  multiple depth  Depth requirements in NJ: 26:6.36 Does not apply to “properly” constructed private vaults.

6. Establishment of Cemeteries  Public: “power of eminent domain”  Private: religious orders family plots

7. Regulation of Cemeteries  “police power”  Interest of public welfare is paramount.

8. Right to Bury  Not real estate.  Subject to cemetery rules and regulations and statutes.  Religious societies may impose special restrictions.  Racial discrimination is not permitted. (Civil Rights Act)

9. Sale and Encumbrance  Lot is inalienable.  Subject to the cemetery’s rules and regulations.  Death of owner results in transfer of title to heirs.  May devise a cemetery lot by Will and Testament, if no burials.

10. Markers, Monuments and Vaults  Personal property.  Owners are entitled to protection from desecration.  Regulated by the cemetery.

11. Visitation in Cemeteries  Owner has a right to visit.  Family/friends have free access.  Cemetery must maintain ingress and egress.  FD has a right due to contractual obligation to the family.

12. Criminal Offenses  Most states make it a crime to desecrate a grave.

13. NJ Cemetery Law  Title 8A  Can be owned/operated by: VA Government Religious Organizations Cemetery Corporations  Cemeteries are tax-exempt.  Cemetery Board is part of the Division of Consumer Affairs

14. Exclusive Rights  Open and fill graves.  Furnish equip. necessary for interment.  Install flush memorials.  Install foundations for markers.  Set/seal vaults, crypts and niches.  Prevent unauthorized interment.  Regulate conduct of visitors.

15. Cemeteries cannot:  Manufacture and sell monuments.  Manufacture and sell burial vaults.  Practice mortuary science.  Cemeteries must have a maintenance and preservation fund of $50,000.

16. Disinterment (Exhumation)  “the removal of a human corpse previously buried in the earth.”  May be authorized for 2 reasons: Public Interest Private Interest  Factors used by court to determine reasonable cause:

17. NJ Law for Disinterment  7 signatures required: Applicant Surviving spouse and children. Owner of interment space. Cemetery representative. Funeral director. Registrar/health official issuing permit. Cemetery/crematory representative where body is being reinterred.

18. Distribution of Permit  4 copies: 1) white 2) canary (yellow) 3) pink 4) goldenrod (gold)

19. NJ Statutes  26:6-37  26:6-38  NJ Administrative Code:  13:44J-8.1 (multiple-depth grave)  13:44J-8.2 (additional interment)  13:44J-8.3 (photo. a disinterment)  13:44J-8.4 (temp. storage)