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.