(a) No body except that of a human being may be interred in the cemetery.
(b) With the written approval of the record owner (or, in the case of multiple ownership, of any co-owner) of a lot or grave space, any person may be interred in such lot or space. In the event of disagreement between two or more co-owners, the written approval of one co-owner shall prevail over the objection of others.
(c) When a person is to be interred upon a lot or in a single grave space, the aforesaid written approval may be omitted by the Superintendent if he is satisfied that such person is related to the owner, or to a co-owner or to a person then interred upon such lot, as:
(1) Spouse,
(2) Lineal descent or lineal ancestor,
(3) Brother or sister.
(d) When the owner of record of a lot or grave space is deceased, and no action has been taken to transfer ownership on the cemetery records to a living person or persons, or when there is no known living person upon whom ownership may devolve, the Superintendent, with the approval of the Director of Public Service, may consent to the interment thereon of a deceased person as to whom there is reasonable ground to believe that such person would be entitled to be an owner or co-owner by devolution of title from the last owner of record under the statutes of descent and distribution of the State in effect at the time of such interment.
(e) (1) Attention is called to the fact that when a death occurs, and it is desired that the decedent be interred in the cemetery, very little time is available to the Superintendent for research into the relationship of the decedent to the owner or co-owner or to a person then interred upon a lot.
At the effective date of these regulations, there are hundreds of lots in the cemetery as to which the record title in the cemetery office is in a person or persons long deceased, and as to which lots there is no record or information of the names or addresses of living persons who would be entitled to record ownership. There are many occasions on which arrangements for interment are requested by long distance telephone, from an unknown person who claims to have knowledge of facts which would tend to justify such interment.
(2) In such situations, it is the policy of the City to construe these regulations liberally, to the end that the requested interment may proceed without protracted research or to the embarrassment of relatives and friends. On the other hand, after the publication of these regulations, it is expected that lot owners will take steps to bring titles up to date and that these regulations will be more strictly enforced.
(Ord. 16-1981. Passed 2-9-81.)