Title 13, Title 13

The Superior Court has original and concurrent jurisdiction in all cases under this chapter. Judges of the District Court may cause the persons brought before them on complaint for violation of section 1342 or 1343 to recognize with sufficient sureties to appear at the next term …

Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, a person who fails to comply with or violates any of the provisions of this chapter in respect to the establishment, maintenance or operation of a cemetery, community mausoleum, crematory, natural organic reduction facility or columba…

All fines or penalties provided by section 1035 may be recovered or enforced by indictment, and the necessary processes for causing the crypts and catacombs to be sealed or the bodies to be removed and buried, and execution to recover the necessary expenses thereof, may be issued…

Persons of lawful age may organize themselves into a nonprofit-sharing corporation for the purpose of purchasing land for a burying ground and for the purpose of owning, maintaining and operating a cemetery or cemeteries, as provided in sections 901 and 903 and may proceed in the…

1. Grave sites of veterans in ancient burying grounds. In any ancient burying ground, as referenced in Title 30-A, section 5723, the municipality in which that burying ground is located, in collaboration with veterans' organizations, cemetery associations, civic and fraternal org…

As used in this article, unless the context otherwise indicates, the following terms have the following meanings. [PL 2003, c. 421, §1 (AMD).] 1. Ancient burying ground. "Ancient burying ground" means a cemetery established before 1880 in which burial is restricted to: A. Members…

1. Access to ancient burying grounds on privately owned land. The owner of an ancient burying ground shall provide a municipality or its caretaker designated pursuant to section 1101 access necessary to perform the duties pursuant to section 1101 and Title 30-A, section 2901. Any…

When a municipality fails without good reason to maintain the good condition and repair of a grave, headstone, monument or marker or fails to keep the grass suitably cut and trimmed on any such grave pursuant to section 1101 and at least one of the municipal officers has had 14 d…

If an ancient burying ground or a public burying ground as described in section 1101 is located in an unorganized township, the county in which the township is located is subject to sections 1101, 1101‑B and 1101‑C except that the county is not required to designate a caretaker b…

Veterans' graves as described in section 1101 that are located on a site that was owned by the Federal Government as of January 1, 2000 are not subject to the requirements of section 1101.

If such officers, treasurer or committee neglect so to apply such fines, they each forfeit the amount thereof, in a civil action, to any person suing therefor.

When any persons appropriate for a burying ground a piece of land containing not more than 1/2 of an acre, it shall be exempt from attachment and execution, and inalienable and indivisible by the owners without the consent of all; and be kept fenced or otherwise substantially mar…

When a person appropriates for a family burying ground a piece of land containing not more than 1/4 of an acre, causes a description of it to be recorded in the registry of deeds of the same county or by the clerk of the town where it is situated and substantially marks the bound…

Lots in public or private cemeteries are exempt from attachment and levy on execution and from liability to be sold by executors and administrators of insolvent estates for the payment of debts and charges of administration. Only one lot shall be so exempt for any one person.

The municipal officers of any town may on petition of 10 voters enlarge any public cemetery or burying ground or incorporated cemetery or burying ground within their town by taking land of adjacent owners, to be paid for by the town or otherwise as the municipal officers may dire…

Notice of a time and place for a hearing held under section 1181 shall be given by posting written notices thereof, signed by said officers, at least 7 days prior thereto, in 2 public places in said town. A copy of such notice and of the petition shall be served on the owners of …

If the municipal officers at the hearing held under section 1181 grant the prayer of the petitioners, they shall then determine what land shall be taken and assess the damages suffered by each person thereby, as if the land were taken for town ways, make a written return of their…

Any person aggrieved by the amount of damages awarded may have them determined by written complaint to the Superior Court in the manner provided respecting damages for the establishment of town ways.

Any private cemetery or burying ground, by written agreement of all the owners thereof, recorded by the clerk of the town in which it is situated may, by vote of such town within one month after the recording of such agreement by the town clerk, become public and subject to the l…

Any city, town, cemetery corporation, trust company or trustee may accept any conveyance of land not exceeding 1/2 acre, to be forever held, kept and used for a private or family burying ground for the grantors and such of their heirs and relatives by blood or marriage as the con…

Cemetery trust funds of any cemetery corporation or association, trust company, church, religious or charitable society, or other trustee, shall be invested in the manner provided in Title 30‑A, chapter 223, subchapter III-A, and, unless the instrument or order creating the trust…

A copy of the record of the vote of the trustee so accepting a conveyance of lands shall be indorsed on the conveyance and certified thereon by the clerk of the grantee and recorded in the registry of deeds with the conveyance.

Any person owning or interested in a lot or lots in a public burying ground of a city or town may deposit with the treasurer of such city or town a sum of money for the purpose of providing for the preservation and care of such lot or lots, or their appurtenances, which sum shall…

A city or town may pass such ordinances or bylaws as may be necessary for the purposes of section 1261 and not repugnant to law, and may receive such money for said purposes, and may invest and hold the same as provided in section 1261.

When any person owning or interested in a lot in a public burying ground in a city or town deposits with the treasurer of such city or town a sum of money for the preservation or care of such lot as provided by section 1262, said city or town may accept a conveyance of such lot f…

1. Trust accounts. Pre-need funds received for cemetery or crematory services or property to be delivered at or after the date of death must be placed in a cemetery or crematory trust account in a bank, trust company, credit union or savings institution. For purposes of this subs…

Upon written request and payment of any reasonable out-of-pocket expenses, a cemetery, crematory or natural organic reduction facility shall deliver to a person, the person's attorney-in-fact or the person's personal representative any item of tangible personal property purchased…

Uninvited telephone or door-to-door solicitations for crematory, cemetery or natural organic reduction facility services or property are prohibited. This section may not be construed to limit the raising of funds for capital improvements as long as those funds are not raised thro…

A person is subject to criminal prosecution under Title 17‑A, chapter 15 if the person violates section 1264 or 1265. A person who violates section 1266 commits a civil violation for which a fine of not less than $100 and not more than $500 may be adjudged.

Any 7 or more persons may be incorporated, not for profit, in the manner provided in section 901 for the purpose of owning, managing and protecting lands and their appurtenances appropriated for public cemeteries. The property of such corporations and the shares of stock therein …

Deeds of burial lots in any public cemetery may be recorded in the registry of deeds for the county or district where such cemetery is situated.

Every cemetery, except Veterans' Memorial Cemetery established under Title 37‑A, chapter 2, hereafter established shall be owned, maintained or operated by a municipality or other political subdivision of the State, a church, a religious or charitable society, or by a cemetery as…

The sale of cemetery lots and plots, or the sale of crypts in a community mausoleum or niches in a columbarium for speculative or financial investment purposes, or the conveyance of any portion of a cemetery already dedicated to burial purposes as security for debt, is prohibited…

The proceeds of the sales of lots and plots in a cemetery shall be applied solely to the management, superintendence, improvement and maintenance of the cemetery and the avenues, paths and structures situated therein, for the purchase of additional cemetery land and for the accum…

A person, corporation or any other private entity that controls a cemetery shall establish a cemetery perpetual care fund. This fund is separate from any permanent care and improvement fund for a community mausoleum on a cemetery's premises established under section 1348. The inc…

1. Mausoleum, crematory or other structure. A community mausoleum, community crematory or other community structure that holds or contains dead human bodies may only be erected in a cemetery that is at least 20 acres in size and has been in existence and used for burial for at le…

Before any person, firm or corporation shall build, construct or erect any such community mausoleum, vault or other burial structure entirely above ground or partly above and partly by excavation, with the intention and purpose that when so built, constructed and erected the same…

Any such community mausoleum or other burial structure shall be constructed of such materials and workmanship as will insure its durability and permanency as well as the safety, convenience, comfort and health of the community in which it is located, as dictated and determined at…

The Bureau of Health shall have supervisory control over the erection of any such community mausoleum and shall enforce compliance with the approved plans and specifications therefor. Such bureau shall determine the reasonable amount of compensation for such supervision, which co…

No community mausoleum, crypt or structure so erected shall be used for the purpose of depositing therein the remains of any dead body until the same, or a component section thereof, is fully completed and the permanent care and improvement fund required by section 1348 has been …

No crypt in a community mausoleum shall be sold or offered for sale before said structure, or a component section thereof, is fully completed.

Whenever any mausoleum, vault, crypt or other structure containing one or more dead human bodies shall, in the opinion of the Bureau of Health, become a menace to public health and the owner thereof fails to remedy or remove the same to the satisfaction of the said bureau, any co…

Every cemetery association or other agency establishing, maintaining and operating a community mausoleum shall create and establish a permanent care and improvement fund, distinct and separate from the permanent care and improvement fund of its cemetery, the income whereof shall …

The treasurer of the cemetery in which such community mausoleum is situated shall be the custodian of the permanent care and improvement fund established therefor in section 1348 and every such fund shall be held, administered and invested in the manner provided by law for funds …

1. Prior authorization or approval for repair, maintenance or removal. Any person may repair, maintain or remove, subject to the restrictions of subsection 2 or 3, any tomb, monument, gravestone, marker or other structure placed or designed as a memorial to the dead, or any porti…

1. Known burial sites. Construction or excavation near a known burial site or within the boundaries of an established cemetery must comply with any applicable land use ordinance concerning burial sites or established cemeteries, whether or not the burial site or established cemet…