(A) Property rights.
(1) All lots, plots and burial space conveyed to individuals shall be presumed to be the sole and separate property of the person named as grantee in the instrument of conveyance; provided, however, that the spouse of the grantee of any such plot containing more than one interment space shall have a vested right of interment of his or her remains therein and any person thereafter becoming the spouse of such grantee shall have a vested right of interment in such plot if more than one interment space therein remains unoccupied at the time such person becomes the spouse of such grantee.
(2) No conveyance or other action such grantee without joiner therein or written consent endorsed thereon or attached thereto of the spouse of such grantee shall divest such spouse of such vested right of interment; provided, however that a final decree of divorce between them shall terminate such vested right of interment unless it shall be otherwise provided by such decree.
(B) Joint tenancy.
(1) In all conveyances to two or more persons as joint tenants, each joint tenant shall have a vested right of interment of his or her remains in the plot so conveyed. Upon the death of a joint tenant, the title to the burial plot therefore held in joint tenancy immediately vest in the survivor of survivors, subject to the vested right of interment for the remains of the deceased joint tenant owner.
(2) An affidavit by any competent persons setting forth the fact of the death of one joint tenant and establishing the identity of the surviving joint tenant named in the deed when filed with the Cemetery Commission, shall complete authority to permit the use of the unoccupied portion of such plot in accordance with the directions of the surviving joining tenant or his or her successor in interest.
(3) A vested right of interment as in these rules provided may be waived and shall be terminated upon the interment elsewhere of the remains of a person entitled thereto under this provision. No such vested right of interment shall be construed to give to any person the right to have his or her remains interred in any interment space in which the remains of any deceased person having a prior vested right of interment therein shall have been deposited, or to give to any person interred in a single interment space in violation of the rules and regulations of the cemetery in which such interment space is located.
(C) Inalienable by death of owner.
(1) Whenever an interment of a member of the family of the record owner or of a relative of a member of said family or of the remains of the record owner is made in a burial plot of the record owner is made in a burial plot transferred by deed or certificate of ownership to an individual owner and said owner dies without making disposition of such burial plot in his or her will by a specific devise thereof, or by a written declaration filed and recorded in the office of the Cemetery Commission, such burial plot thereby becomes inalienable and shall be held as the family burial plot of the owner.
(2) In said family burial plot one grave may be used for the owner’s interment, one for the surviving spouse, if any, of the owner, who has a vested right of interment therein and those remaining, if any; the parents and children of said deceased owner in order of need may be interred without the consent of any person claiming any interest therein. In the event there shall be no parent or child surviving such deceased person, the right of the interment therein shall go in the order of need first, to the spouse of any child of said record owner and second, in the order of need to the next heirs at law of said owners as specified by the statutes of descent or the spouse of any such heir at law. Any surviving spouse and any parent, child or heir of such deceased owner having a right of interment in such plot may waive such right in favor of any other relatives or spouse of such relative of deceased owner, or spouse of such deceased owner, and upon such waiver the body of the person in whose favor the waiver is made may be interred therein.
(D) Right of interment. If no interment shall have been made in a burial plot which has been transferred by deed or certificate of ownership to an individual owner, or if all remains of deceased persons previously interred therein shall have been lawfully removed therefrom, upon the death of the owner unless such owner shall have disposed of such burial plot in his or her will by a specific devise thereof or by a written declaration filed and recorded in the office of the Cemetery Commission, the whole of said burial plot subject to the right of interment of the decedent therein shall descend in the regular line of succession to the heirs at law of the owner; provided, that one grave shall be reserved to the surviving spouse of the owner. An affidavit by competent person setting forth the fact of the death of the owner and the name of person or persons entitled to us to use such property, in accordance with these rules, shall be complete authority to the Cemetery Commission to permit the use of the unoccupied portions of such plot by the person or persons entitled thereto.
(E) Several owners. When there are several owners of a burial plot, or of rights of interment therein, such owners may designate one or more person to represent said plot and file written notice of such designation with the Cemetery Commission; in the absence of such notice or of written objection to its so doing, the Cemetery Commission shall not be liable to any owner for interring or permitting an interment therein upon the request or direction of any registered co-owner of such plot.
(Ord. 2006-709, passed 3-21-2006)