What Responsibility Does a Owner of a Private Cemetary Have?
Full Question:
Answer:
The answer will depend on all the facts involved. Cemeteries established after 1936 are required by state statute to be owned by a municipality or other political subdivision of the commonwealth, a church, a religious or charitable society, or by a cemetery association.
Please see the following MA statutes to determine applicability:
G.L.c. 114, § 43A. Ownership, maintenance and operation of cemeteries;
private profit
Section 43A. No cemetery established on or after July first, nineteen
hundred and thirty-six, shall be owned, maintained or operated except by
a municipality or other political subdivision of the commonwealth, a
church, a religious or charitable society, or by a cemetery association
incorporated as provided in section one, nor shall such a cemetery be
maintained or operated for the purpose of private profit or gain,
directly or indirectly, to any director, officer or member of the
cemetery association or other agency owning, maintaining and operating
the same. A cemetery lawfully established prior to said date may continue
to be owned, maintained and operated under the form of organization
adopted therefor.
G.L.c. 114, § 1B. Liability of directors, officers or trustees
Section 1B. A person who serves as director, officer or trustee of a
nonprofit cemetery qualified as a tax exempt organization under section
501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code and who is not compensated for those
services shall not be liable for an act or omission resulting in damages
or injury to another person if that person so serving was acting in good
faith and within the scope of his official functions or duties, unless
the damage was caused by an act or omission intentionally designed to
harm, or by a gross negligent act or omission which results in harm to a
person.
Nothing in this section shall be construed as affecting or modifying
the liability of a person subject to this section for a cause of action
arising out of the person's operation of a motor vehicle.
Nothing in this section shall affect or modify the liability of a
person subject to this section for financial misconduct or fraud in the
use of the assets of the corporation.
G.L.c. 114, § 28. Conveyance of lots or interest in lots in trust for
preservation as memorial; rights of heirs of owner; control over lot or
interest in lot
Section 28. The owner of any right, title or interest in or to a lot,
tomb or monument in any cemetery owned or controlled by any company or
association or by any town, may convey or devise the same to such
company, association or municipality in trust for the purpose of its
preservation as a memorial or as a burial place for the bodies of the
owner and his descendants or relatives, or of such other persons as may
be specified in the instrument creating the trust, or upon such other
trust as may be created by the instrument and accepted by the grantee or
devisee; but no such instrument shall be construed to take away the right
of the heirs of the owner of a lot or tomb to be buried therein, unless
the instrument contains an express provision to that effect. Any such
grantee or devisee may accept any such grant, gift or devise, and if it
accepts the same shall forever carry out and observe the terms of the
instrument by which the grant, gift or devise was made. After the making
of a conveyance or the taking effect of a devise and its acceptance by
the cemetery authorities, the grantor of the lot, tomb or monument or of
any interest therein, or the heirs and assigns of the grantor or devisor
thereof, shall have no control over it except such as may be reserved in
the instrument.