By Armbrister                                         S.B. No. 1316
       74R7751 DLF-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the bodies interred in certain unknown and abandoned
    1-3  cemeteries.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 711, Health and Safety
    1-6  Code, is amended by adding Section 711.010 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 711.010.  UNKNOWN AND ABANDONED CEMETERY IN URBAN AREA.
    1-8  (a)  A county court may order that remains, including cremated
    1-9  remains, may be removed from a cemetery and reinterred in a
   1-10  perpetual care cemetery if:
   1-11              (1)  the cemetery is located in an incorporated
   1-12  municipality in an area that is restricted to or zoned for single
   1-13  or multi-family residential use;
   1-14              (2)  the cemetery is not administered by a cemetery
   1-15  corporation, cemetery association, or other entity dedicated to a
   1-16  cemetery purpose; and
   1-17              (3)  the record title owner of the property on which
   1-18  the cemetery is located did not have actual notice of the existence
   1-19  of the cemetery at the time the owner acquired the property.
   1-20        (b)  An action under this section may be commenced by
   1-21  petition of the holder of record title of the property on which the
   1-22  cemetery is located.
   1-23        (c)  Except as provided by Subsection (d), the court may not
   1-24  order the removal and reinterment of remains under Subsection (a)
    2-1  unless notice of the hearing for removal and reinterment has been
    2-2  provided to the person who may give consent to the removal of
    2-3  remains under Section 711.004(a). The notice requirement of this
    2-4  subsection is satisfied by:
    2-5              (1)  personal notice given not later than the 11th day
    2-6  before the date of the hearing; or
    2-7              (2)  notice by certified or registered mail that is
    2-8  deposited in the United States mail not later than the 16th day
    2-9  before the date of the hearing.
   2-10        (d)  If a person listed under Section 711.004(a) cannot be
   2-11  located, notice must be provided by publication in the county where
   2-12  the cemetery is located once each week for four consecutive weeks.
   2-13  The first publication must be made not later than the 28th day
   2-14  before the date on which the hearing is to be held.
   2-15        (e)  The record title owner of the property on which the
   2-16  cemetery is located shall pay for the removal and reinterment.  The
   2-17  reinterment shall be in a perpetual care cemetery.
   2-18        (f)  The person who removes remains from a cemetery under a
   2-19  court order issued under this section shall file with the court a
   2-20  report of the removal that includes:
   2-21              (1)  the date the remains are removed;
   2-22              (2)  the name and age at death of the decedent if those
   2-23  facts are known or can be conveniently obtained; and
   2-24              (3)  the place in which the remains are reinterred.
   2-25        (g)  An action under this section shall be brought in the
   2-26  county in which the cemetery is located.
   2-27        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-1  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-2  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    3-3  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-4  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    3-5  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    3-6  passage, and it is so enacted.