1-1 By: Dutton (Senate Sponsor - Nixon) H.B. No. 1366
1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House April 25, 1995;
1-3 April 26, 1995, read first time and referred to Committee on Health
1-4 and Human Services; May 10, 1995, reported adversely, with
1-5 favorable Committee Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 7, Nays
1-6 0; May 10, 1995, sent to printer.)
1-7 COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR H.B. No. 1366 By: Nixon
1-8 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-9 AN ACT
1-10 relating to information in county records and on death certificates
1-11 concerning places in which remains are interred; providing civil
1-12 penalties.
1-13 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-14 SECTION 1. Section 711.034, Health and Safety Code, is
1-15 amended by amending Subsections (a) and (e) and adding Subsection
1-16 (g) to read as follows:
1-17 (a) A cemetery organization that acquires property for
1-18 interment purposes shall:
1-19 (1) in the case of land, survey and subdivide the
1-20 property into gardens or sections, with descriptive names or
1-21 numbers, and make a map or plat of the property showing the plots
1-22 contained within the perimeter boundary and showing a specific
1-23 unique number for each plot; or
1-24 (2) in the case of a mausoleum or a crematory and
1-25 columbarium, make a map or plat of the property delineating
1-26 sections or other divisions with descriptive names and numbers and
1-27 showing a specific unique number for each crypt, lawn crypt, or
1-28 niche.
1-29 (e) The certificate or declaration may contain a provision
1-30 permitting the directors by order to resurvey and change the shape
1-31 and size of the property for which the associated map or plat is
1-32 filed if that change does not disturb any interred remains. If a
1-33 change is made, the cemetery organization shall file an amended map
1-34 or plat and shall indicate any change in a specific unique number
1-35 assigned to a plot, crypt, lawn crypt, or niche.
1-36 (g) A cemetery association is civilly liable to the state in
1-37 an amount not to exceed $1,000 for each map or plat that fails to
1-38 comply with Subsection (a), (b), (c), or (e).
1-39 SECTION 2. Section 193.001, Health and Safety Code, is
1-40 amended to read as follows:
1-41 Sec. 193.001. Form of Certificate. (a) The department
1-42 shall prescribe the form and contents of death certificates and
1-43 fetal death certificates.
1-44 (b) The department shall require death certificates and
1-45 fetal death certificates to include the name of the place and the
1-46 specific number of the plot, crypt, lawn crypt, or niche in which a
1-47 decedent's remains will be interred or, if the remains will not be
1-48 interred, the place and manner of other disposition.
1-49 (c) The bureau of vital statistics and each local registrar
1-50 shall make the information provided under Subsection (b) available
1-51 to the public and may charge a fee in an amount prescribed under
1-52 Section 191.0045 for providing that service.
1-53 SECTION 3. A cemetery association that, on the effective
1-54 date of this Act, has not complied with Section 711.034, Health and
1-55 Safety Code, shall comply with that law not later than September
1-56 30, 1995.
1-57 SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, except
1-58 that Section 1 of this Act takes effect October 1, 1995.
1-59 SECTION 5. The importance of this legislation and the
1-60 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-61 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-62 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-63 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-64 * * * * *