BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 1179
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Date of Hearing: June 29, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Susan Talamantes Eggman, Chair
SB
1179 (Vidak) - As Amended June 6, 2016
SENATE VOTE: 38-0
SUBJECT: Public cemetery districts: interment rights.
SUMMARY: Clarifies in the principal act for public cemetery
districts the scope of rights behind an interment right, and
establishes a process to allow an owner of an interment right to
transfer that right to successors. Specifically, this bill:
1)Defines an interment right as a transferable property interest
that provides an owner of the right to use or control the use
of a plot for the interment of human remains, which includes
the following rights:
a) The right to determine the number and identity of any
person or persons to be interred in the plot within a
cemetery in conformance with all applicable regulations
adopted by the cemetery district (district); and,
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b) The right to control the placement, design, wording, and
removal of memorial markers in compliance with all
applicable regulations adopted by a district.
2)Provides that an interment right shall not be construed as
conferring title to the property burdened by the transferable
property interest.
3)Allows an owner of an interment right to designate in writing
the person or persons who may be interred in the plot to which
the owner holds the interment right.
4)Requires an owner of an interment right to designate, at the
time of purchase, a successor owner or owners of the interment
right in a signed written designation deposited with the
district.
5)Requires, if the owner of an interment right dies without
making a valid and enforceable disposition of the interment
right by a specific device in a testamentary device, or by a
written designation, the interment right to pass according to
the laws of intestate succession. Requires a district, in the
event that the owner has no heirs at law, to follow the
abandonment procedures established for public cemetery
districts.
6)Provides that an interment right does not include the right
for disinterment of human remains, except with consent of the
district and written consent of the surviving spouse, child,
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parent, or sibling, in that order of priority.
7)Specifies that this bill does not prohibit the removal of
remains from one plot to another in the same cemetery or the
removal of remains by a cemetery district upon the written
order of the court, the coroner, or the health department.
Requires a district to maintain a copy of the written order
and retain records relating to the removal or final
disposition of the remains, as specified.
8)Requires a district, upon sale of a burial plot, to notify the
purchaser in writing of all the following:
a) The interment rights of the purchaser;
b) The law that governs the successive ownership of
interment rights; and,
c) The district's adopted policies, rules, and regulations
governing the use, sale, or other transfer of interment
rights.
9)Allows a surviving spouse, registered domestic partner, child,
parent, or heir, who has an interment right, to waive the
right in favor of any other relative of the deceased owner or
spouse of a relative of the deceased owner.
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10)Requires a person, who purports to be the successive owner of
an interment right, to execute a written affidavit declaring
under penalty of perjury all of the following:
a) He or she is the person entitled to succeed to the
interment right as provided;
b) He or she has exerted all reasonable efforts to find
other persons, who may have an equal or higher claim to
succeed to the interment right; and,
c) He or she is unaware, to the best of his or her
knowledge, of any opposition challenging his or her right
to succeed to the interment right.
11)Requires the successive owner of an interment right to comply
with applicable state and local laws, and applicable
requirements or policies established by a district board of
trustees.
12)Provides that when a district acts to transfer ownership
rights or makes an interment on the basis of a written
affidavit described in 10), above, the district, an employee,
or trustee shall not be liable for any claims, losses, or
damages asserted in any action, unless the district had actual
knowledge that the facts stated in the written affidavit were
false.
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EXISTING LAW:
1)Establishes Public Cemetery District Law, which provides
formation, powers, and governance for public cemetery
districts.
2)Authorizes a district to exercise all rights and powers to sue
and be sued; to acquire, sell, or lease property; to engage
counsel and other professional services; and, to enter into
and perform all necessary contracts. Authorizes a district to
sell interment rights in its cemeteries, columbariums, and
mausoleums, as specified.
3)Defines interment right as the right to use or control the use
of a plot, niche, or other space, authorized by law, for
interment of human remains. (Section 9002.)
4)Requires a district board of trustees to adopt a schedule of
fees for interments in cemeteries owned by the district and
for other necessary and convenient services.
5)Limits interment in a district to the following:
a) Persons who are residents of the district;
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b) Persons who are former residents of the district and who
acquired interment rights while they were residents of the
district;
c) Persons who pay property taxes on property located in
the district;
d) Persons who formerly paid property taxes on property
located in a district and who acquired interment rights
while they paid those property taxes;
e) Eligible nonresidents of the district, as provided in
this chapter; and,
f) Persons who are family members of any person described
above.
6)Requires a district to maintain accurate and current records,
including records of the location of the sites where persons
have acquired interment rights, including the names and
addresses of the persons who have acquired these interment
rights, and the location of plots where interment rights are
available for acquisition.
7)Establishes a process for a public cemetery district to seek
the abandonment of an interment plot. Requires the board of
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trustees of a public cemetery district, to seek abandonment,
to file a petition with the superior court, as specified.
FISCAL EFFECT: This bill is keyed fiscal.
COMMENTS:
1)Bill Summary. This bill seeks to clarify the rights of an
interment right, and provides the groundwork for passing on an
interment right to successors by allowing a purchaser to
transfer the right to a named successor on a designation form,
or through a testamentary instrument. Under existing law, if
the purchaser of a burial right dies and is not buried in the
plot, there is no mechanism for the interment right to be
passed on to living heirs. This bill provides that mechanism
by requiring a purchaser to designate a beneficiary or
successor. Additionally, this bill clarifies that an owner of
an interment right may transfer his or her interment right in
a trust, will, or other testamentary document. Under this
bill, if a purchaser fails to name a successor, the interment
right passes according to the rules of intestate succession,
similar to the transfer of burial rights in private
cemeteries. This bill also requires that when a named
successor comes forward to claim the interment right, the
successor must execute an affidavit to confirm his or her
ownership. This bill is sponsored by the California
Association of Public Cemeteries.
2)Author's Statement. According to the author, "Current law
presently provides no direction to public cemeteries when it
comes to the use of interment rights purchased by someone who
has already passed away without designating a successor.
Because of this ambiguity with the passing of interment
rights, some public cemeteries have established their own
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guidelines or policies as to how internment rights are passed
down. With guidelines varying from district to district, it
can cause confusion and delay for a family that is trying to
utilize an interment right purchased by a deceased family
member. When a cemetery decides to use an interment right
that has not been probated or successor named in legal
documents, they usually have about 3 to 7 days to make a
decision to accommodate the family's request to inter the
deceased. These quick and emotional decisions must be made by
public cemeteries to determine who has the authority to use
the interment right with very little guidance from the law.
SB 1179 requires interment right owners, at the time of
purchase, to designate successors. If the owner of an
interment right passes before any successors are appointed in
either the previous provisions of SB 1179 or a legal device
(will, trust, probate), the interment right will transfer to
the successors according to the rules of interstate
succession, similar to the transfer of burial rights in
private cemeteries. Heirs who have an interment right are
able to waive that right in favor of any other relative of the
deceased owner."
3)Arguments in Support. Supporters argue that public cemetery
districts do not have documented guidance to administer
interment rights after the original owner dies, leaving no
affidavit or direction for the use of those interment rights,
a void that the provisions of this bill will fill.
4)Arguments in Opposition. None on file.
5)Double Referral. This bill was heard by the Judiciary
Committee on June 8, 2016, where it passed with a 9-0 vote.
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support Opposition
California Association of Public Cemeteries [SPONSOR]None on
file
Altaville Cemetery District
California Special Districts Association
Fair Oaks Cemetery District
Kern County Cemetery District
Lemoore Cemetery District
Los Banos Cemetery District
Madera Cemetery District
Murrieta Valley Cemetery District
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Oroville Cemetery District
Paso Robles District Cemetery
Public Cemetery Alliance
Roseville Public Cemetery District
San Jacinto Valley Cemetery District
Sutter Cemetery District
Williams Cemetery District
Wilmington Cemetery District
Analysis Prepared by:Misa Lennox / L. GOV. / (916)
319-3958