By Galloway                                     S.B. No. 1540

      75R7481 DLF-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the sale and installation of monuments on cemetery

 1-3     plots; providing a penalty.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 711, Health and Safety

 1-6     Code, is amended by adding Section 711.0385 to read as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 711.0385.  SALE AND INSTALLATION OF MONUMENTS.  (a)  A

 1-8     cemetery organization or any other person who sells and conveys the

 1-9     exclusive right of sepulture in a plot may not:

1-10                 (1)  condition the sale of the plot on the purchase of

1-11     a monument to be installed on the plot from the cemetery

1-12     organization or other person;

1-13                 (2)  prohibit any person from installing a monument on

1-14     the plot;

1-15                 (3)  require the payment of a setting or service charge

1-16     by a person to permit the person to install a monument on the plot;

1-17                 (4)  refuse to provide care or maintenance for any

1-18     portion of a plot on which a monument has been installed solely

1-19     because the monument was installed by a person other than the

1-20     cemetery organization or other seller of the plot; or

1-21                 (5)  require a person to waive the liability of the

1-22     cemetery organization or other seller of the plot for damage to a

1-23     monument after the monument has been installed.

1-24           (b)  Subsection (a) does not prohibit a cemetery organization

 2-1     from establishing reasonable rules under Section 711.031 relating

 2-2     to a monument or the foundation required for the monument.  Rules

 2-3     adopted in accordance with this subsection must be applicable to

 2-4     all monuments in the cemetery without regard to the source of the

 2-5     monuments and must be enforced uniformly.

 2-6           (c)  A person commits an offense if the person violates

 2-7     Subsection (a).  An offense under this subsection is a Class C

 2-8     misdemeanor.

 2-9           (d)  In this section, "monument" includes any marker or

2-10     effigy  installed on a plot.

2-11           SECTION 2.  Section 711.031(a), Health and Safety Code, is

2-12     amended to read as follows:

2-13           (a)  A cemetery organization may adopt and enforce rules:

2-14                 (1)  concerning the use, care, control, management,

2-15     restriction, and protection of the cemetery operated by the

2-16     cemetery organization;

2-17                 (2)  to restrict the use of cemetery property;

2-18                 (3)  to regulate the placement, uniformity, class, and

2-19     kind of markers, monuments, effigies, and other structures in any

2-20     part of the cemetery, subject to Section 711.0385;

2-21                 (4)  to regulate the planting and care of plants in the

2-22     cemetery;

2-23                 (5)  to prevent the interment of remains not entitled

2-24     to be interred in the cemetery;

2-25                 (6)  to prevent the use of a plot for a purpose that

2-26     violates the cemetery organization's restrictions;

2-27                 (7)  to regulate the conduct of persons on cemetery

 3-1     property and to prevent improper meetings at the cemetery; and

 3-2                 (8)  for other purposes the directors consider

 3-3     necessary for the proper conduct of the cemetery organization's

 3-4     business, and for the protection of the premises and the

 3-5     principles, plans, and ideals on which the cemetery was organized.

 3-6           SECTION 3.  This Act applies only to the sale or installation

 3-7     of a monument on or after the effective date of this Act. The sale

 3-8     or installation of a monument before the effective date of this Act

 3-9     is governed by the law as it existed immediately before the

3-10     effective date of this Act, and that law is continued in effect for

3-11     that purpose.

3-12           SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

3-13           SECTION 5.  The importance of this legislation and the

3-14     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

3-15     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

3-16     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

3-17     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.