Texas 2017 - 85th Regular

Texas Senate Bill SB1630 Compare Versions

Version 1 (Old)

Version 2 (New)

Old	New		Differences
1		-	S.B. No. 1630
	1	+	85R24390 DMS-F
	2	+	By: Buckingham S.B. No. 1630
	3	+	(Howard)
	4	+	Substitute the following for S.B. No. 1630: No.
2	5
3	6
	7	+	A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
4	8		AN ACT
5	9		relating to cemeteries.
6	10		BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
7	11		SECTION 1. Section 711.001, Health and Safety Code, is
8	12		amended to read as follows:
9	13		Sec. 711.001. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:
10	14		(1) "Abandoned cemetery" means a cemetery, regardless
11	15		of whether it appears on a map or in deed records, that is not owned
12	16		or operated by a cemetery organization, does not have another
13	17		person legally responsible for its care, and is not maintained by
14	18		any person.
15	19		(2) [(1)] "Burial park" means a tract of land that is
16	20		used or intended to be used for interment in graves.
17	21		(3) [(1-a)] "Campus" means the area:
18	22		(A) within the boundaries of one or more adjacent
19	23		tracts, parcels, or lots under common ownership;
20	24		(B) on which the principal church building and
21	25		related structures and facilities of an organized religious society
22	26		or sect are located; and
23	27		(C) that may be subject to one or more easements
24	28		for street, utility, or pipeline purposes.
25	29		(4) [(2)] "Cemetery" means a place that is used or
26	30		intended to be used for interment, and includes a graveyard, burial
27	31		park, mausoleum, or any other area containing one or more graves.
28	32		(5) [(2-a)] "Cemetery element" means a grave,
29	33		memorial, crypt, mausoleum, columbarium, or other item that is
30	34		associated with the cemetery, including a fence, road, curb, wall,
31	35		path, gate, or bench and the lighting and landscaping.
32	36		(6) [(2-b)] "Cemetery broker" means a person who sells
33	37		the exclusive right of sepulture for another person. The term does
34	38		not include a person who:
35	39		(A) is an officer, agent, or employee of the
36	40		cemetery organization in which the plot is located and who is exempt
37	41		from registration under Subchapter C-1; or
38	42		(B) originally purchased the exclusive right of
39	43		sepulture for personal use.
40	44		(7) [(3)] "Cemetery organization" means:
41	45		(A) an unincorporated association of plot owners
42	46		not operated for profit that is authorized by its articles of
43	47		association to conduct a business for cemetery purposes; or
44	48		(B) a corporation, as defined by Section
45	49		712.001(b)(3), that is authorized by its certificate of formation
46	50		or its registration to conduct a business for cemetery purposes.
47	51		(8) [(4)] "Cemetery purpose" means a purpose
48	52		necessary or incidental to establishing, maintaining, managing,
49	53		operating, improving, or conducting a cemetery, interring remains,
50	54		or caring for, preserving, and embellishing cemetery property.
51	55		(9) [(5)] "Columbarium" means a durable, fireproof
52	56		structure, or a room or other space in a durable, fireproof
53	57		structure, containing niches and used or intended to be used to
54	58		contain cremated remains.
55	59		(10) [(5-a)] "Cremains receptacle" means a marker,
56	60		boulder, bench, pedestal, pillar, or other aboveground vessel that
57	61		contains niches for cremated remains.
58	62		(11) [(6)] "Cremated remains" or "cremains" means the
59	63		bone fragments remaining after the cremation process, which may
60	64		include the residue of any foreign materials that were cremated
61	65		with the human remains.
62	66		(12) [(7)] "Cremation" means the irreversible process
63	67		of reducing human remains to bone fragments through extreme heat
64	68		and evaporation, which may include the processing or the
65	69		pulverization of bone fragments.
66	70		(13) [(8)] "Crematory" means a structure containing a
67	71		furnace used or intended to be used for the cremation of human
68	72		remains.
69	73		(14) [(9)] "Crematory and columbarium" means a
70	74		durable, fireproof structure containing both a crematory and
71	75		columbarium.
72	76		(15) [(10)] "Crypt" means a chamber in a mausoleum of
73	77		sufficient size to inter human remains.
74	78		(16) [(11)] "Directors" means the governing body of a
75	79		cemetery organization.
76	80		(17) [(12)] "Entombment" means interment in a crypt.
77	81		(18) [(13)] "Funeral establishment" means a place of
78	82		business used in the care and preparation for interment or
79	83		transportation of human remains, or any place where one or more
80	84		persons, either as sole owner, in copartnership, or through
81	85		corporate status, are engaged or represent themselves to be engaged
82	86		in the business of embalming or funeral directing.
83	87		(19) [(14)] "Grave" means a space of ground that
84	88		contains interred human remains or is in a burial park and that is
85	89		used or intended to be used for interment of human remains in the
86	90		ground.
87	91		(20) [(15)] "Human remains" means the body of a
88	92		decedent.
89	93		(21) [(16)] "Interment" means the permanent
90	94		disposition of remains by entombment, burial, or placement in a
91	95		niche.
92	96		(22) [(17)] "Interment right" means the right to inter
93	97		the remains of one decedent in a plot.
94	98		(23) [(18)] "Inurnment" means the placement of
95	99		cremated remains in an urn.
96	100		(24) [(19)] "Lawn crypt" means a subsurface
97	101		receptacle installed in multiple units for ground burial of human
98	102		remains.
99	103		(25) [(20)] "Mausoleum" means a durable, fireproof
100	104		structure used or intended to be used for entombment.
101	105		(26) [(20-a)] "Memorial" means a headstone,
102	106		tombstone, gravestone, monument, or other marker denoting a grave.
103	107		(27) [(21)] "Niche" means a space in a columbarium or
104	108		cremains receptacle used or intended to be used for the placement of
105	109		cremated remains in an urn or other container.
106	110		(28) [(22)] "Nonperpetual care cemetery" means a
107	111		cemetery that is not a perpetual care cemetery.
108	112		(29) [(23)] "Perpetual care" or "endowment care"
109	113		means the maintenance, repair, and care of all places in the
110	114		cemetery.
111	115		(30) [(24)] "Perpetual care cemetery" or "endowment
112	116		care cemetery" means a cemetery for the benefit of which a perpetual
113	117		care trust fund is established as provided by Chapter 712.
114	118		(31) [(25)] "Plot" means space in a cemetery owned by
115	119		an individual or organization that is used or intended to be used
116	120		for interment, including a grave or adjoining graves, a crypt or
117	121		adjoining crypts, a lawn crypt or adjoining lawn crypts, or a niche
118	122		or adjoining niches.
119	123		(32) [(26)] "Plot owner" means a person:
120	124		(A) in whose name a plot is listed in a cemetery
121	125		organization's office as the owner of the exclusive right of
122	126		sepulture; or
123	127		(B) who holds, from a cemetery organization, a
124	128		certificate of ownership or other instrument of conveyance of the
125	129		exclusive right of sepulture in a particular plot in the
126	130		organization's cemetery.
127	131		(33) [(27)] "Prepaid funeral contract" means a
128	132		written contract providing for prearranged or prepaid funeral
129	133		services or funeral merchandise.
130	134		(34) [(28)] "Remains" means either human remains or
131	135		cremated remains.
132	136		(35) "Unidentified grave" means a grave that is not
133	137		marked in a manner that provides the identity of the interment.
134	138		(36) "Unknown cemetery" means an abandoned cemetery
135	139		evidenced by the presence of marked or unmarked graves that does not
136	140		appear on a map or in deed records.
137	141		(37) "Unmarked grave" means the immediate area where
138	142		one or more human interments are found that:
139	143		(A) is not in a recognized and maintained
140	144		cemetery;
141	145		(B) is not owned or operated by a cemetery
142	146		organization;
143	147		(C) is not marked by a tomb, monument,
144	148		gravestone, or other structure or thing placed or designated as a
145	149		memorial of the dead; or
146	150		(D) is located on land designated as
147	151		agricultural, timber, recreational, park, or scenic land under
148	152		Chapter 23, Tax Code.
149	153		(38) "Unverified cemetery" means a location having
150	154		some evidence of interment but in which the presence of one or more
151	155		unmarked graves has not been verified by a person described by
152	156		Section 711.0105(a) or by the Texas Historical Commission.
153	157		SECTION 2. Section 711.004, Health and Safety Code, is
154	158		amended by adding Subsection (f-1) to read as follows:
155	159		(f-1) For unmarked graves contained within an abandoned,
156	160		unknown, or unverified cemetery, a justice of the peace acting as
157	161		coroner or medical examiner under Chapter 49, Code of Criminal
158	162		Procedure, or a person described by Section 711.0105(a) may
159	163		investigate or remove remains without written order of the state
160	164		registrar or the state registrar's designee.
161	165		SECTION 3. The heading to Section 711.010, Health and
162	166		Safety Code, is amended to read as follows:
163	167		Sec. 711.010. ABANDONED, UNKNOWN, OR UNVERIFIED
164	168		[ABANDONED] CEMETERY.
165	169		SECTION 4. Section 711.010, Health and Safety Code, is
166	170		amended by amending Subsections (a) and (b) and adding Subsection
167	171		(d) to read as follows:
168	172		(a) The owner of property on which an unknown cemetery is
169	173		discovered or on which an abandoned cemetery is located may not
170	174		construct improvements on the property in a manner that would
171	175		[further] disturb the cemetery until the human remains interred in
172	176		the cemetery are removed under a written order issued by the state
173	177		registrar or the state registrar's designee under Section
174	178		711.004(f) and under an order of a district court as provided by
175	179		this section, except as provided by Section 711.004(f-1).
176	180		(b) On petition of the owner of the property, a district
177	181		court of the county in which an unknown cemetery is discovered or an
178	182		abandoned cemetery is located may order the removal of any
179	183		dedication for cemetery purposes that affects the property if the
180	184		court finds that the removal of the dedication is in the public
181	185		interest. If a court orders the removal of a dedication of a
182	186		cemetery and all human remains in that cemetery [on the property]
183	187		have not previously been removed, the court shall order the removal
184	188		of the human remains from the cemetery to a perpetual care cemetery
185	189		or a municipal or county cemetery.
186	190		(d) The Texas Historical Commission, with consent of the
187	191		landowner, may investigate a suspected but unverified cemetery or
188	192		may delegate the investigation to a qualified person described by
189	193		Section 711.0105(a).
190	194		SECTION 5. The heading to Section 711.011, Health and
191	195		Safety Code, is amended to read as follows:
192	196		Sec. 711.011. FILING RECORD OF UNKNOWN OR ABANDONED
193	197		CEMETERY.
194	198		SECTION 6. Section 711.011(a), Health and Safety Code, is
195	199		amended to read as follows:
196	200		(a) A person who discovers an unknown or abandoned cemetery
197	201		shall file notice of the discovery of the cemetery with the county
198	202		clerk of the county in which the cemetery is located and
199	203		concurrently mail notice to the landowner on record in the county
200	204		appraisal district not later than the 10th day after the date of the
201	205		discovery. The notice must contain a legal description of the land
202	206		on which the unknown or abandoned cemetery was found and describe
203	207		the approximate location of the cemetery and the evidence of the
204	208		cemetery that was discovered.
205	209		SECTION 7. Subchapter A, Chapter 711, Health and Safety
206	210		Code, is amended by adding Section 711.0111 to read as follows:
207		-	Sec. 711.0111. NOTICE OF UNVERIFIED CEMETERY. (a) A
208		-	~~person~~ who discovers an unverified cemetery shall file notice and
209		-	~~evidence~~ of the discovery with the Texas Historical Commission on a
210		-	~~form~~ provided by the Texas Historical Commission, and shall
211		-	~~concurrently~~ provide a copy of the notice to the landowner on record
212		-	~~in the~~ county appraisal district on whose land the unverified
213		-	~~cemetery is~~ located.
	211	+	Sec. 711.0111. NOTICE OF UNVERIFIED CEMETERY. (a) A person
	212	+	who discovers an unverified cemetery shall file notice and evidence
	213	+	of the discovery with the Texas Historical Commission on a form
	214	+	provided by the Texas Historical Commission, and shall concurrently
	215	+	provide a copy of the notice to the landowner on record in the
	216	+	county appraisal district on whose land the unverified cemetery is
	217	+	located.
214	218		(b) The landowner described by Subsection (a) may send a
215	219		response or comments to the Texas Historical Commission concerning
216	220		the notice not later than the 30th day after the date the notice is
217	221		filed.
218	222		(c) The Texas Historical Commission shall evaluate the
219	223		notice of the unverified cemetery, the evidence submitted with the
220	224		notice, and the response of the landowner, if any, and shall
221	225		determine whether there is sufficient evidence of the existence of
222	226		a cemetery.
223	227		(d) If the Texas Historical Commission determines
224	228		sufficient evidence supports the existence of a cemetery, the Texas
225	229		Historical Commission shall inform the landowner and may file
226	230		notice of the existence of the cemetery under Section 711.011.
227	231		(e) If the Texas Historical Commission determines
228	232		sufficient evidence supports a determination that a cemetery does
229	233		not exist, the Texas Historical Commission shall notify the
230	234		landowner on record in the appraisal district of its determination,
231	235		amend the notice to include the commission's determination, and
232	236		ensure any notice filed with a county clerk under Section 711.011 is
233	237		corrected.
234	238		SECTION 8. Section 711.041, Health and Safety Code, is
235	239		amended by adding Subsection (d) to read as follows:
236	240		(d) This section does not apply to an unverified cemetery.
237	241		SECTION 9. Section 712.0441(f-1), Health and Safety Code,
238	242		is amended to read as follows:
239	243		(f-1) The commissioner may issue an order requiring
240	244		restitution by a person if, after notice and opportunity for a
241	245		hearing held in accordance with the procedures for a contested case
242	246		hearing under Chapter 2001, Government Code, the commissioner finds
243	247		that the corporation has not ordered memorials, as defined by
244	248		Section 711.001 [711.001(20-a)], in compliance with the deadlines
245	249		established by rules adopted under this chapter.
246	250		SECTION 10. This Act takes effect September 1, 2017.
247		-	______________________________ ______________________________
248		-	President of the Senate Speaker of the House
249		-	I hereby certify that S.B. No. 1630 passed the Senate on
250		-	May 4, 2017, by the following vote: Yeas 31, Nays 0; and that the
251		-	Senate concurred in House amendment on May 16, 2017, by the
252		-	following vote: Yeas 30, Nays 0.
253		-	______________________________
254		-	Secretary of the Senate
255		-	I hereby certify that S.B. No. 1630 passed the House, with
256		-	amendment, on May 11, 2017, by the following vote: Yeas 140,
257		-	Nays 4, two present not voting.
258		-	______________________________
259		-	Chief Clerk of the House
260		-	Approved:
261		-	______________________________
262		-	Date
263		-	______________________________
264		-	Governor