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General Assembly Raised Bill No. 848
January Session, 2019
LCO No. 4073
Referred to Committee on GENERAL LAW
Introduced by:
(GL)
AN ACT CONCERNING FU NERAL SERVICE CONTRACTS AND
CEMETERIES.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. Section 42-207 of the general statutes is repealed and the 1
following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 1, 2019): 2
An irrevocable funeral service contract may be entered into in which 3
the amount held in escrow or a death benefit payable under an 4
individual or group life insurance policy may be disbursed only upon 5
the death of the beneficiary [, provided such a contract does not exceed 6
eight thousand dollars] and all interest, growth or dividends 7
accumulates to the escrow account or insurance policy and are 8
inaccessible to the beneficiary. Such irrevocable funeral service 9
contract may be transferred from one funeral service establishment to 10
another upon request of the beneficiary or a legal representative of the 11
beneficiary. The purchase of an irrevocable funeral service contract 12
shall not preclude an individual from purchasing other funeral service 13
contracts that are revocable, provided any such revocable funeral 14
service contract purchased by a Medicaid beneficiary may be revoked 15 Raised Bill No. 848
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only upon written notice by the Medicaid beneficiary to the 16
Commissioner of Social Services. 17
Sec. 2. Section 19a-312 of the general statutes is repealed and the 18
following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 1, 2019): 19
[(a) No crypt or room in any mausoleum not privately owned, or 20
niche in a columbarium not so owned, shall be sold or offered for sale, 21
until such structure is entirely completed.] 22
[(b)] (a) There shall be established and maintained a fund for the 23
perpetual care and maintenance of each [such] mausoleum and 24
columbarium, by applying in the case of a mausoleum not less than the 25
sum of one hundred dollars from the proceeds received from the sale 26
of each crypt and ten per cent of the proceeds received from the sale of 27
each room; and in case of niches in a mausoleum or columbarium, 28
used as a repository for the remains of deceased persons after 29
cremation, a sum which shall be equivalent to ten per cent of the sale 30
price of each niche. If sales of crypts or rooms in any such mausoleum, 31
or sales of niches in any such mausoleum or columbarium, are made 32
upon a partial payment plan, there shall be set apart and applied to 33
said maintenance fund from each such payment such proportion 34
thereof as the number of partial payments bears to the total amount of 35
the sum required to be set aside for such fund. 36
[(c)] (b) When any mausoleum, vault, crypt or structure containing 37
one or more deceased human bodies, in the opinion of the Department 38
of Public Health, becomes a menace to public health, and the owner or 39
owners thereof fail to remedy or remove the same to the satisfaction of 40
said department, any court of competent jurisdiction may order the 41
person, firm or corporation owning such structure to remove the 42
deceased body or bodies for interment in some suitable cemetery at the 43
expense of the person, firm or corporation owning such mausoleum, 44
vault or crypt. If no such person, firm or corporation can be found in 45
the county where such mausoleum, vault or crypt is located, such 46
removal and interment shall be at the expense of the cemetery, city or 47 Raised Bill No. 848
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town within which such mausoleum, vault or crypt is located, or of the 48
cemetery association in charge of any such cemetery. 49
[(d)] (c) Any cemetery or mausoleum maintained or constructed 50
contrary to the provisions of this chapter shall be deemed a public 51
nuisance and may be enjoined in an action brought by any taxpayer of 52
this state. 53
Sec. 3. Section 19a-311 of the general statutes is repealed and the 54
following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 1, 2019): 55
Such structure shall be erected under the supervision of an inspector 56
to be appointed by the Department of Public Health, which shall 57
determine the amount of his compensation, such compensation to be 58
paid by the person erecting the same. No vault, crypt, niche, 59
mausoleum, columbarium or structure, and no addition or alteration 60
thereof, shall be used for the purpose of interring therein any body 61
until the person, firm or corporation operating such structure has 62
obtained from said department a certificate, signed by the 63
Commissioner of Public Health, certifying that the plans and 64
specifications filed pursuant to the provisions of section 19a-310 have 65
been complied with, and that the requirements for a maintenance fund 66
provided for in subsection [(b)] (a) of section 19a-312, as amended by 67
this act, have been complied with, which certificate shall be filed in the 68
office of the town clerk of the town wherein the community 69
mausoleum is located, provided a columbarium which is used solely 70
as a repository for the remains, after cremation of deceased persons 71
and is located on the premises of any religious society or corporation 72
shall not be subject to the provisions of this section. 73
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 July 1, 2019 42-207
Sec. 2 July 1, 2019 19a-312
Sec. 3 October 1, 2019 19a-311
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Statement of Purpose:
To remove a dollar cap regarding irrevocable funeral service contracts
and to allow for the sale of a crypt or room in a mausoleum or niche in
a columbarium before construction of the structure is completed.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline,
except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is
not underlined.]