Missouri HB 2672: Modifies provisions relating to cemeteries

Bill Text

SECOND REGULAR SESSION
HOUSE BILL NO. 2672
102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE WEST.
5608H.01I DANA RADEMAN MILLER, Chief Clerk
AN ACT
To repeal sections 214.270 and 214.389, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof three new
sections relating to cemeteries.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:
SectionA. Sections214.270and214.389,RSMo,arerepealedandthreenewsections
2 enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as sections 214.270, 214.272, and 214.389, to read as
3 follows:
214.270. As used in sections 214.270 to 214.410, the following terms mean:
2 (1) "Agent" or "authorized agent", any person empowered by the cemetery operator
3 to represent the operator in dealing with the general public, including owners of the burial
4 space in the cemetery;
5 (2) "Burialmerchandise",amonument,marker,memorial,tombstone,headstone,urn,
6 outer burial container, or similar article [which] that may contain specific lettering, shape,
7 color, or design as specified by the purchaser;
8 (3) "Burial space", oneor more than one plot, grave, mausoleum, crypt, lawn, surface
9 lawn crypt, niche, or space used or intended for the interment of the human dead;
10 (4) "Cemetery", property restricted in use for the interment of the human dead by
11 formal dedication or reservation by deed but shall not include any of the foregoing held or
12 operated by the state or federal government or any political subdivision thereof, any
13 incorporated city or town, any county, or any religious organization, cemetery association, or
14 fraternal society holding the same for sale solely to members and their immediate families;
15 (5) "Cemetery association", any number of persons who shall have associated
16 themselves by articles of agreement in writing as a not-for-profit association or organization,
EXPLANATION — Matter enclosed in bold-faced brackets [thus] in the above bill is not enacted and is
intended to be omitted from the law. Matter in bold-face type in the above bill is proposed language.

17 whether incorporated or unincorporated, formed for the purpose of ownership, preservation,
18 care, maintenance, adornment, and administration of a cemetery. Cemetery associations shall
19 be governed by a board of directors. Directors shall serve without compensation;
20 (6) "Cemetery operator" or "operator", any person who owns, controls, operates, or
21 manages a cemetery;
22 (7) "Cemetery prearranged contract", any contract with a cemetery or cemetery
23 operator for burial merchandise or burial services covered by sections 214.270 to 214.410
24 [which] that is entered into before the death of the individual for whom the burial
25 merchandise or burial services are intended;
26 (8) "Cemetery service" or "burial service", those services performed by a cemetery
27 owner or operator licensed as an endowed care or nonendowed cemetery including setting a
28 monument or marker, setting a tent, excavating a grave, interment, entombment, inurnment,
29 setting a vault, or other related services within the cemetery;
30 (9) "Columbarium", a building or structure for the inurnment of cremated human
31 remains;
32 (10) "Community mausoleum", a mausoleum containing a substantial area of
33 enclosed space and having either a heating, ventilating, or air conditioning system;
34 (11) "Department", department of commerce and insurance;
35 (12) "Developed acreage", the area [which] that has been platted into grave spaces
36 and has been developed with roads, paths, features, or ornamentations and in which burials
37 can be made;
38 (13) "Director", director of the division of professional registration;
39 (14) "Division", division of professional registration;
40 (15) "Endowed care", the maintenance, repair, and care of all burial space subject to
41 the endowment within a cemetery, including any improvements made for the benefit of such
42 burial space. Endowed care shall include the general overhead expenses needed to
43 accomplish such maintenance, repair, care, and improvements. Endowed care shall include
44 the terms perpetual care, permanent care, continual care, eternal care, care of duration, or any
45 like term;
46 (16) "Endowed care cemetery", a cemetery, or a section of a cemetery, [which] that
47 represents itself as offering endowed care and [which] that complies with the provisions of
48 sections 214.270 to 214.410;
49 (17) "Endowed care fund", "endowed care trust", or "trust", any cash or cash
50 equivalent, to include any income therefrom, impressed with a trust by the terms of any gift,
51 grant, contribution, payment, devise, or bequest to an endowed care cemetery, or its endowed
52 care trust, or funds to be delivered to an endowed care cemetery's trust received pursuant to a
53 contract and accepted by any endowed care cemetery operator or [his] the operator's agent.
HB 2672 2

54 This definition includes the terms endowed care funds, maintenance funds, memorial care
55 funds, perpetual care funds, or