subject: Family or Private Burial Grounds [print this page] Family or Private Burial Grounds Family or Private Burial Grounds
Family or Private Burial Grounds
The purely private or family burial ground is still found with considerable frequency in the United States, althoughfew such burial grounds have been established in recent years. Generally, this type of cemetery has become involved in litigation only when the land formerly belonging to the familywhich set up the graveyard is sold to a stranger or personoutside the family circle, and questions arise concerning therights of a new owner with respect to the land used for thegraveyard.
Learn More About Life Estate Planning Today!
Where title to real property has been in a family for anumber of years, appropriate provisions should be made inany contract of sale of the real estate to safeguard the sanctityof the consecrated ground and to avoid any disturbance of thefinal resting place. If there is to be a reinterment, there should be deposits in escrow of funds necessary to effect a dignified and efficient disinterment, transportation, and reburial, if thiscan be accomplished without violating the religious scruples and principles of the family. Bear in mind, in contracting forthe purchase or sale of real estate held by a family over aperiod of years, that in some cases disinterment is prohibitedby the religious beliefs of the family involved.
The deed to a cemetery plot usually contains a provision that, after an interment therein, such lot shall be foreverinalienable, and that it may not be sold, and that upon thedeath of the lot owner the lot shall pass to such person orpersons as may be designated in the conveyance or, if no suchdesignation is made, that it shall descend as provided by law.In this connection, it should be noted that whatever title theremay be or whatever rights may exist in a decedent withrespect to a cemetery plot will not pass under the residuaryclause of the decedent's Will, unless the lot is specificallyreferred to in the Will itself.
Most cemetery rules and regulations provide for the cemetery lot to descend to the distributees regardless of testamen tary devise. However, it is possible for the owners of the plot to file with the cemetery an irrevocable designation or directive that the lot shall descend in perpetuity to the distributeesof the owner. These rights may be enforced by appropriatecourt action.
The purchasers of cemetery plots do not acquire a freeholdright in the land itself, but only easements entitling them tointer such number of bodies as the grave may contain or asthe deed or instrument may provide, subject to regulationsof the cemetery or of the public authority. Since the rightacquired is not the fee simple (legal language for absoluteownership), the usual incidents of ordinary land holding donot apply. The cemetery lot may not necessarily be tax-exempt, although the cemetery itself usually is. The question oftax exemption will vary from state to state and it may not beattached by creditors of the lot holder and it is immune from claims of creditors or lienors. However, where the cemeteryitself has gone into bankruptcy or receivership, occupied cemetery lots or cemetery lots which have been sold but have notyet been occupied, are not included in the assets of the insolvent corporation, and its creditors may not reach them.
welcome to Insurances.net (https://www.insurances.net)
