Title 43, Cemeteries and Crematories.

When 5 or more persons shall associate themselves together for the purpose of forming a cemetery association in the District, such persons shall have the power to adopt a corporate name, and by that name shall be known as a body corporate, and by that name shall have perpetual su…

Such persons so associated shall have power to acquire by gift, grant, or purchase any lot or lots of land not exceeding 50 acres, and lay out the same for a burial place for the dead, with convenient aisles, and to sell the same for such purpose and for no other purposes, reserv…

They shall cause the land designed as a burial ground to be surveyed and platted, and a plat of the ground so surveyed shall be recorded in the Office of the Surveyor of the District. Each lot shall be duly numbered by the Surveyor and such number shall be marked on the plat and …

Such association shall have power to inclose and ornament their burial ground, to build and erect a hearse house, and keep the same in proper repair; to purchase a hearse or hearses, and to do all other necessary acts to the end that all the appliances, conveniences, and benefits…

It shall be the duty of the owner or owners of any cemetery or cemeteries in the District to inclose such cemetery or cemeteries with good and sufficient walls or fences to prevent entrance thereto or exit therefrom except by gates provided for that purpose. Such cemetery or ceme…

The proceeds arising from the sale of lots, after deducting all expenses of purchasing and laying out the same, shall be applied, appropriated, and used in improving and ornamenting the burial ground, or for other purposes named in §§ 43-101 to 43-114, 43-116 to 43-118, 43-119 to…

The officers of any such corporation shall be a president, a treasurer (who shall act as a secretary), and not less than 3 directors, who shall be severally chosen annually by ballot, and shall hold office until their successors are chosen. Any neglect to choose officers on the d…

The first election of officers by the persons associating, according to and for the purpose specified in § 43-101, shall be at the time and place designated and agreed upon by a majority of the persons so associating themselves together, and no other than such persons shall vote …

At each subsequent election of officers of any such corporation the owner of a lot in said burial ground shall be entitled to 1 vote in the election of officers of the corporation and no more, and shall, by virtue of such membership, be a member of the corporation.

Each corporation shall have power to establish and change bylaws and prescribe rules and regulations for its government and the duties of its officers and the management of its property.

The property of any such corporation, its grounds, lots, and appliances, shall be exempt from taxation and shall not be liable to sale on execution.

Any person desiring to dedicate any lot of land, not exceeding 5 acres, as a burial place for the interment of the dead for the use of any society, association, or neighborhood may, by deed duly executed and recorded, convey such land to the District of Columbia, by the corporate…

It shall be lawful for such association to take and hold any grant, donation, or bequest upon trust to apply the income thereof, under the direction of the board of managers, for the embellishment, preservation, renewal, or repair of any tomb, monument, gravestone, or other struc…

No person or persons or cemetery association shall lay out any new cemetery, or part of any cemetery, within the City of Washington, in the District of Columbia, nor in said District, within one and one-half miles from the boundaries of said City; no person or cemetery associatio…

Without regard to the provisions of § 43-114, the Mayor of the District of Columbia is hereby authorized to license for cemetery purposes any parcel of land in the District of Columbia which does not exceed 1 acre in size, and which, except for a 1-side frontage of less than 100 …

It shall be the duty of the owner or owners of any cemetery or cemeteries in the District to divide the area to be used for graves into lots of reasonable size, to be permanently designated by conspicuous marks, so that the position of each may be readily determined, each lot to …

It shall be the duty of the owner or owners of any cemetery or cemeteries in the District to cause to be kept in the office of the superintendent or person in charge of such cemetery or cemeteries a register showing the number of each lot, the name, age, cause of death, and date …

It shall be the duty of the superintendent or person in charge of any cemetery or other place for the disposal of dead bodies of human beings in the District of Columbia to register his or her name at the office of the Department of Health of said District, giving full name, resi…

The Council of the District of Columbia may, by act, authorize tissue banks operating pursuant to subchapter III of Chapter 15 of Title 7, or other persons subject to regulations made pursuant to subchapter II-A or III of Chapter 15 of Title 7, or both, to remove, transport, or d…

No dead body or part thereof shall be kept in said District in such manner as to give rise to any offensive odors to the annoyance of any person or persons in the neighborhood or to the public, nor so as to be exposed to the public view; nor shall any such body or part thereof be…

No person shall bury or cause to be buried within said District the body or part of the body of any deceased person, except in such grounds as were known and used as public or private burial grounds on January 1, 1902, or such as shall thereafter be designated by the Mayor of sai…

No body shall be buried in said District in any vault unless the coffin be separately entombed in properly cemented stone or brick work, so as to render such vault airtight; such vault, after having been sealed, shall not be opened within 10 years; no body shall be temporarily de…

No grave in said District shall be reopened, except for the purpose of disinterment, within 10 years after burial of a person above 12 years of age, or within 8 years after the burial of a child under 12 years of age, unless the grave has been, in the first instance, of sufficien…

No person shall, in the District of Columbia, build or maintain a crematory or other device for destroying human bodies, except within the limits of some duly-established cemetery in said District unless such person or persons has in writing the consent of the owners of more than…

It shall be unlawful for any person or persons to embalm, inject, or by any similar method preserve the dead body, or part of the dead body, of any human being in said District within 4 hours after death or before the issue of the death certificate; and in case the death is belie…

Any person who shall violate or aid and abet in violating any of the provisions of § 43-120 shall, upon conviction thereof by competent judicial authority, be punished, for each offense, by a fine of not more than $200, or by imprisonment for not more than 90 days, or both.

Prosecutions hereunder shall be in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, in the name of said District; provided, that any person or persons so tried shall have the privilege, when demanded, of a trial by jury, as in other jury cases in said Superior Court of the Distric…

Sections 43-101 to 43-114 , 43-116 to 43-118 , and 43-120 to 43-128 (except § 43-119) shall not be construed to: (1) Interfere with or prevent the disinterment of any body in accordance with § 11-2311 [repealed]; or (2) Interfere with the disposal of the ashes of bodies which hav…

Nothing in §§ 43-129 to 43-131 shall be construed as repealing or in any way modifying any of the provisions of Chapter 2 of Title 3.