Title 47 — CORPORATIONS

Incorporations for the purpose of establishing, operating, or maintaining cemeteries may be formed under the provisions of chapters 47-22 to 47-28 , inclusive, relating to nonprofit corporations so far as applicable and conformable to the powers, duties, limitations, and policy i…

Any nonperpetual care cemetery, including nonperpetual care cemetery organizations excepted from the provisions of chapter 55-12 by § 55-12-1 , shall be subject to the duties imposed and the rights provided by §§ 47-29-8 and

Every cemetery corporation has power to purchase or take by gift, grant, or devise, or to hold real property not exceeding one hundred sixty acres for the sole use and purpose of a burial ground and to lay out the same into lots, with convenient avenues and walks, and to sell the…

Any cemetery corporation shall also have power to acquire any real property other than real property specified in § 47-29-11 , if such acquirement is by gift, by devise under a will, or by purchase at foreclosure sale of any such real property on which such corporation holds a li…

A cemetery corporation shall cause its land, or such portion thereof as may from time to time become necessary for that purpose, to be surveyed into lots, avenues, and walks, and platted, and the plat of ground as surveyed shall be acknowledged and recorded in the office of the r…

Any cemetery association or cemetery corporation which owns a tract of land which is included within the boundaries of real estate acquired for cemetery purposes, and which lies adjacent to the outer boundaries thereof, and which tract has not been surveyed as required by § 47-29…

If any cemetery association or cemetery corporation owns a tract of land surveyed and platted as required by § 47-29-13 which is included within the boundaries of real estate acquired for cemetery purposes, and which tract lies adjacent to the outer boundaries of such real estate…

Before making any sale or conveyance of the whole or any part of a tract described in § 47-29-15 , the cemetery corporation or association shall file with the circuit court for the county in which such corporation or association maintains a cemetery a petition for confirmation of…

At the hearing required by § 47-29-16 , and after receipt of evidence offered in support of such petition and evidence, if any, offered in opposition thereto, the circuit court shall grant such petition if satisfied that the evidence sustains the same, and if not, such petition s…

Judgment granting a petition filed under § 47-29-16 shall have the effect of vacating any plat or survey theretofore made of such tract, whether or not such plat or survey has been recorded, and the cemetery corporation or association shall thereupon be authorized to cause to be …

Whenever the officers of a cemetery association incorporated under and controlled by the laws of this state find it necessary to extend the boundaries of such cemetery in order to provide for the burial of the dead, they shall first locate and describe clearly the location and ex…

Cemetery corporations may make such provisions in their bylaws for general management and operation of the corporation, elections of directors and officers, removals and filling of vacancies, and corporate meetings as may be permitted by and conformable to the statutes under whic…

A cemetery corporation shall have power to inclose, improve, and embellish its grounds, avenues and walks, and to erect buildings or vaults for its use and to prescribe in its bylaws rules for the sale, inclosure, or ornamentation of lots and for erecting monuments or gravestones…

A cemetery corporation may hold such personal property as the legitimate and necessary purposes of the corporation may require. Source: SDC 1939, § 11.1906; SL 1949, ch 24 ; SL 1955, ch 16 .

A cemetery corporation also has power: (1) To establish a perpetual fund to be used in purchasing and maintaining mowing equipment, hiring maintenance staff, caring for, ornamenting, beautifying, and improving its grounds; (2) To receive donations, devises, and legacies for such …

The proceeds arising from the sale or resale by a cemetery corporation of lots, after deducting expenses of purchasing, inclosing, laying out, and improving the ground and of erecting buildings, shall be exclusively applied, appropriated, and used in protecting, preserving, impro…

At least fifty percent of the gross proceeds of sales of lots or graves must be applied as often as every six months to the payment of the debts and obligations of the cemetery corporation. Source: SDC 1939, § 11.1910.

All the property of every cemetery corporation and the lots sold by it to individual proprietors shall be exempt from taxation, assessment, lien, attachment, and from levy and sale upon execution and all such real property shall be exempt from appropriation for streets, roads, or…

All instruments of conveyance of real property, lots, or parts of lots made by any cemetery corporation prior to January 1, 1994, are, notwithstanding any omission, irregularity, or defect in such instruments and the proceedings, resolutions, and other actions had and taken by su…

The owner or owners or proprietors of a lot or lots in any cemetery, and none other, shall by virtue of such ownership or proprietorship of any such lot be members of the cemetery corporation and entitled to one vote only for each such person owning a lot or lots in said cemetery…

Five members of a cemetery corporation entitled to a vote under the provisions of § 47-29-3 shall constitute a quorum of the corporation to transact business of any kind including the election of officers, adoption, amendment, or repeal of bylaws, or amendment of articles of inco…

Notice of any election of directors or officers of a cemetery corporation, except the original organization election, shall be given by publishing the same in a newspaper published in the county in which the cemetery is located and nearest the vicinity thereof stating the time an…

Each director of a cemetery corporation shall be a member of the cemetery corporation. Source: SDC 1939, § 11.1903; SL 1983, ch 329 , § 2.

When grounds purchased or otherwise acquired for cemetery purposes have been previously used as a burial ground, those who are lot owners at the time of the purchase shall continue to own the same and be members of the corporation with all the privileges the purchase of a corpora…

Whenever an interment is made in any cemetery lot transferred to an individual owner by the corporation, the same thereby becomes forever inalienable while any person is buried therein and descends in regular line of succession to the heirs - at - law of the owner, but any one or…

Any cemetery lot or lots, or parts of lots, transferred to an individual owner by the corporation, or any mausoleum if the charter of the mausoleum corporation has expired, and in which no interment has been made and which for a period of ten years or more remains uncared for and…