1-1 By: Hunter (Senate Sponsor - Ratliff) H.B. No. 3694
1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House May 5, 1999;
1-3 May 6, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
1-4 Administration; May 11, 1999, reported favorably by the following
1-5 vote: Yeas 4, Nays 0; May 11, 1999, sent to printer.)
1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-7 AN ACT
1-8 relating to abandoned burial plots.
1-9 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-10 SECTION 1. The heading to Section 714.003, Health and Safety
1-11 Code, is amended to read as follows:
1-12 Sec. 714.003. ABANDONED PLOTS [LOTS] IN PRIVATE CEMETERIES
1-13 SECTION 2. Sections 714.003(a), (b), (c), (e), (g), and (i),
1-14 Health and Safety Code, are amended to read as follows:
1-15 (a) The ownership or right of sepulture in an unoccupied
1-16 plot [lot or a part of a lot] for which adequate perpetual care has
1-17 not been provided in a private cemetery operated by a nonprofit
1-18 organization reverts to the cemetery on a finding by a court that
1-19 the plot [lot or part of the lot] is abandoned. A cemetery may
1-20 convey title to any plot [a lot or part of a lot] that has reverted
1-21 to the cemetery.
1-22 (b) A plot [lot] is presumed to be abandoned if for 10
1-23 consecutive years an owner or an owner's successor in interest does
1-24 not:
1-25 (1) maintain the plot [lot] in a condition consistent
1-26 with other plots [lots] in the cemetery; or
1-27 (2) pay any assessments for maintenance charged by the
1-28 cemetery.
1-29 (c) An owner or an owner's successors in interest may rebut
1-30 the presumption of abandonment by:
1-31 (1) delivering to the governing body or by filing with
1-32 the court written notice claiming ownership of or right of
1-33 sepulture in the plot [lot]; and
1-34 (2) paying the cemetery for any past due maintenance
1-35 charges on the plot [lot] plus interest at the maximum legal rate.
1-36 (e) The governing body may petition a court of competent
1-37 jurisdiction for an order declaring that a plot [lot or a part of a
1-38 lot] is abandoned if, not later than the 91st day and not earlier
1-39 than the 120th day before the date the petition is filed, the
1-40 governing body gives written notice of its claim of the plot to the
1-41 [lot] owner or, if the owner is deceased or his address is unknown,
1-42 to the owner's known successors in interest. The notice must be
1-43 delivered in person or by prepaid United States mail, sent to the
1-44 last known address of the owner or the owner's successors in
1-45 interest.
1-46 (g) After deducting reasonable expenses related to the
1-47 reacquisition and sale of an abandoned plot [cemetery lot],
1-48 including restoration, expenses of the sale, court costs and legal
1-49 fees, a cemetery shall deposit the balance of the funds from the
1-50 sale of the plot [lot] into an account to be used [solely] for the
1-51 [perpetual] care of the cemetery.
1-52 (i) In this section:
1-53 (1) "Governing body" means the person in a nonprofit
1-54 organization responsible for conducting a cemetery business.
1-55 (2) "Nonprofit organization" means an organization
1-56 described by Section 501(c)(13) [501(c)(3)], Internal Revenue Code
1-57 of 1986 (26 U.S.C. Section 501(c)(13) [501(c)(3)]).
1-58 (3) "Plot" means a grave space in a cemetery that has
1-59 not been used to inter human remains.
1-60 (4) "Private cemetery" means a cemetery that is not
1-61 owned or operated by the United States, this state, or a political
1-62 subdivision of this state, but is owned and operated by a nonprofit
1-63 organization.
1-64 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-1 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-2 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-3 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-4 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-5 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-6 passage, and it is so enacted.
2-7 * * * * *