HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE CHAPTER 711. GENERAL …

1 HEALTH AND SAFETY CODETITLE 8. DEATH AND DISPOSITION OF THE BODYSUBTITLE C. cemeteries AND CREMATORIESCHAPTER 711. GENERAL PROVISIONS RELATING TO CEMETERIESSUBCHAPTER A. GENERAL PROVISIONSSec. this CHAPTER :(1)AA"Abandoned cemetery" means a cemetery, regardlessof whether it appears on a map or in deed records, that is not ownedor operated by a cemetery organization, does not have anotherperson legally responsible for its care, and is not maintained byany person.(2)AA"Burial park" means a tract of land that is used orintended to be used for interment in graves.(3)AA"Campus" means the area:(A)AAwithin the boundaries of one or more adjacenttracts, parcels, or lots under common ownership;(B)AAon which the principal church building andrelated structures and facilities of an organized religious societyor sect are located; and(C)AAthat may be subject to one or more easementsfor street, utility, or pipeline purposes.

2 (4)AA"Cemetery" means a place that is used or intendedto be used for interment, and includes a graveyard, burial park,mausoleum, or any other area containing one or more graves.(5)AA"Cemetery element" means a grave, memorial, crypt,mausoleum, columbarium, or other item that is associated with thecemetery, including a fence, road, curb, wall, path, gate, or benchand the lighting and landscaping.(6)AA"Cemetery broker" means a person who sells theexclusive right of sepulture for another term does notinclude a person who:(A)AAis an officer, agent, or employee of thecemetery organization in which the plot is located and who is exemptfrom registration under Subchapter C-1; or(B)AAoriginally purchased the exclusive right of1sepulture for personal use.

3 (7)AA"Cemetery organization" means:(A)AAan unincorporated association of plot ownersnot operated for profit that is authorized by its articles ofassociation to conduct a business for cemetery purposes; or(B)AAa corporation, as defined by (b)(3), that is authorized by its certificate of formationor its registration to conduct a business for cemetery purposes.(8)AA"Cemetery purpose" means a purpose necessary orincidental to establishing, maintaining, managing, operating,improving, or conducting a cemetery, interring remains, or caringfor, preserving, and embellishing cemetery property.(9)AA"Columbarium" means a durable, fireproofstructure, or a room or other space in a durable, fireproofstructure, containing niches and used or intended to be used tocontain cremated remains.

4 (10)AA"Cremains receptacle" means a marker, boulder,bench, pedestal, pillar, or other aboveground vessel that containsniches for cremated remains.(11)AA"Cremated remains" or "cremains" means the bonefragments remaining after the cremation process, which may includethe residue of any foreign materials that were cremated with thehuman remains.(12)AA"Cremation" means the irreversible process ofreducing human remains to bone fragments through extreme heat andevaporation, which may include the processing or the pulverizationof bone fragments.(13)AA"Crematory" means a structure containing afurnace used or intended to be used for the cremation of humanremains.

5 (14)AA"Crematory and columbarium" means a durable,fireproof structure containing both a crematory and columbarium.(15)AA"Crypt" means a chamber in a mausoleum ofsufficient size to inter human remains.(16)AA"Directors" means the governing body of acemetery organization.(17)AA"Entombment" means interment in a (18)AA"Funeral establishment" means a place of businessused in the care and preparation for interment or transportation ofhuman remains, or any place where one or more persons, either assole owner, in copartnership, or through corporate status, areengaged or represent themselves to be engaged in the business ofembalming or funeral directing.

6 (19)AA"Grave" means a space of ground that containsinterred human remains or is in a burial park and that is used orintended to be used for interment of human remains in the ground.(20)AA"Human remains" means the body of a decedent.(21)AA"Interment" means the permanent disposition ofremains by entombment, burial, or placement in a niche.(22)AA"Interment right" means the right to inter theremains of one decedent in a plot.(23)AA"Inurnment" means the placement of crematedremains in an urn.(24)AA"Lawn crypt" means a subsurface receptacleinstalled in multiple units for ground burial of human remains.

7 (25)AA"Mausoleum" means a durable, fireproof structureused or intended to be used for entombment.(26)AA"Memorial" means a headstone, tombstone,gravestone, monument, or other marker denoting a grave.(27)AA"Niche" means a space in a columbarium orcremains receptacle used or intended to be used for the placement ofcremated remains in an urn or other container.(28)AA"Nonperpetual care cemetery" means a cemeterythat is not a perpetual care cemetery.(29)AA"Perpetual care" or "endowment care" means themaintenance, repair, and care of all places in the cemetery.(30)AA"Perpetual care cemetery" or "endowment carecemetery" means a cemetery for the benefit of which a perpetual caretrust fund is established as provided by Chapter712.

8 (31)AA"Plot" means space in a cemetery owned by anindividual or organization that is used or intended to be used forinterment, including a grave or adjoining graves, a crypt oradjoining crypts, a lawn crypt or adjoining lawn crypts, or a nicheor adjoining (32)AA"Plot owner" means a person:(A)AAin whose name a plot is listed in a cemeteryorganization s office as the owner of the exclusive right ofsepulture; or(B)AAwho holds, from a cemetery organization, acertificate of ownership or other instrument of conveyance of theexclusive right of sepulture in a particular plot in theorganization s cemetery.

9 (33)AA"Prepaid funeral contract" means a writtencontract providing for prearranged or prepaid funeral services orfuneral merchandise.(34)AA"Remains" means either human remains or crematedremains.(35)AA"Unidentified grave" means a grave that is notmarked in a manner that provides the identity of the interment.(36)AA"Unknown cemetery" means an abandoned cemeteryevidenced by the presence of marked or unmarked graves that does notappear on a map or in deed records.(37)AA"Unmarked grave" means the immediate area whereone or more human interments are found that:(A)AAis not in a recognized and maintainedcemetery;(B)AAis not owned or operated by a cemeteryorganization;(C)AAis not marked by a tomb, monument,gravestone, or other structure or thing placed or designated as amemorial of the dead; or(D)AAis located on land designated asagricultural, timber, recreational, park, or scenic land underChapter23, Tax Code.

10 (38)AA"Unverified cemetery" means a location havingsome evidence of interment but in which the presence of one or moreunmarked graves has not been verified by a person described (a) or by the Texas Historical 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 678, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1989. Amendedby Acts 1991, 72nd Leg., ch. 14, Sec. 212, eff. Sept. 1, 1991; Acts1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 634, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1993; Acts 1997,475th Leg., ch. 1389, Sec. 3, eff. Sept. 1, by:Acts 2005, 79th Leg., Ch. 106 ( ), Sec. 1, 1, 2009, 81st Leg., , Ch. 914 ( ), Sec. 1, 1, 2011, 82nd Leg., , Ch. 532 ( ), Sec. 1, 1, 2011, 82nd Leg.