California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 2672

Introduced by Assembly Member Bonilla

February 19, 2016

An act to amend Section 8001 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to public health.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 2672, as introduced, Bonilla. Human remains: disinterment and removal.

Existing law authorizes the remains of a deceased person to be removed from a cemetery upon written order of the health department having jurisdiction or the superior court of the county in which the cemetery is situated. Existing law authorizes the remains of a deceased person to be removed from a plot in a cemetery with the consent of the cemetery authority and the written consent of a surviving family member, as specified. Under specified circumstances, existing law also authorizes the board of supervisors of a county that owns a cemetery authority to order the disinterment and removal of all human remains interred in the cemetery, subject to specified procedures. Existing law requires the publication of the notice of declaration of intended abandonment and removal by the county at least 60 days prior to removal of human remains.

This bill would instead require that publication of notice to occur at least 70 days prior to removal of human remains.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 8001 of the Health and Safety Code is
amended to read:

8001.  

Any resolution or declaration for abandonment adopted
and made under begin delete the provisions of end delete this article shall specify and
declare that at any time after the expiration of begin delete 60 end delete begin insert 70 end insert days after the
first publication of the notice of declaration of intended
abandonment and removal, the human remains then remaining in
the cemetery begin delete will end delete begin insert shall end insert be removed by the county owning the
cemetery. Notice of the declaration of intended abandonment of
the cemetery and proposed removal of the human remains interred
begin delete therein end delete begin insert in the cemetery end insert shall be given to all begin insert interested end insert persons
begin delete interested therein end delete by publication in the newspaper of general
circulation published in the county determined by the board of
supervisors most likely to give notice to the parties concerned.
Publication shall be made once a week for four consecutive times.
The notice shall be entitled “Notice of Declaration of Abandonment
of Lands for Cemetery Purposes and of Intention to Remove
Human Bodies Interred Therein,” and shall specify a date not less
than begin delete 60 end delete begin insert 70 end insert days after the first publication of the notice when the
county controlling the cemetery lands and causing the notice to
be published will proceed to remove the human remains then
remaining in begin delete such end delete begin insert that end insert cemetery. Notice shall also be mailed to
any known living heir-at-law of any person whose remains are
interred in the cemetery when the address of the heir is known.