Title 18, Health

§ 5378. Bylaws and regulations The board of cemetery commissioners may make necessary bylaws and regulations in respect to such burial grounds, and permanent disposition of the dead not inconsistent with law, and may alter the same. Such bylaws and regulations shall be recorded i…

§ 5379. Report of cemetery commissioners The board shall submit annually a written report to the town auditors as to the condition and needs of the burial grounds under its charge and of its doings, including a detailed statement of its receipts and expenditures and of the amount…

§ 5380. Auditors The town auditors shall audit such statement, file it in the office of the town clerk, and include the whole or a summary thereof in their annual report.

§ 5381. Transfer of care from commissioners to selectboard By vote, a town may take its burial grounds out of the charge of the board of cemetery commissioners and place the same under the charge of the selectboard. When a town so votes, the office of cemetery commissioners shall…

§ 5382. Town trust funds—Acceptance of property A town may take and hold in trust grants, gifts, or bequests of property and apply the same or the income thereof for the care, improvement, or embellishment of its burial grounds or a part thereof, or for the erection, preservation…

§ 5383. Acceptance of money in trust A town may vote to receive and hold money in trust, the income of which is to be used for the care and improvement of its burial grounds, or of private lots within such burial grounds or elsewhere.

§ 5384. Payment to treasurer; record; investment (a) Unless otherwise directed by the donor, all monies received by a town for cemetery purposes shall be paid to the town treasurer, who shall give a receipt for monies received, which shall be recorded in the office of the town cl…

§ 5385. Accounts; expenditures The town treasurer shall keep a separate account of each such trust fund unless the same is in charge of the trustees of public funds. The income therefrom shall be subject to the order of the selectboard or board of cemetery commissioners as the ca…

§ 5386. Report The town treasurer or trustees of public funds shall annually report the condition of such funds to the town.

§ 5387. Money received prior to 1895 Sections 5383-5386 of this title shall not be construed to affect the action of a town in respect to money received in trust for the purpose named by the donor, prior to February 1, 1895.

§ 5431. Cemetery associations; corporations Every cemetery established after June 1, 1933 that is not owned and operated by a town or by a religious or ecclesiastical society shall be established, owned, and operated by a corporation as prescribed in this subchapter. (Amended 202…

§ 5432. Organization and operation Such corporation shall be organized, and the affairs of the corporation shall be governed and controlled under the provisions of 11 V.S.A. chapter 1, under those sections thereof which provide for the organization and management of corporations …

§ 5433. Authority; powers Upon filing the articles of incorporation, the incorporators and other members, if any, from the date of such filing, shall be and constitute a body corporate with perpetual succession and with capacity to perform all acts within the State not repugnant …

§ 5434. Penalty for doing business as a cemetery association without authority A person, firm, corporation, or association, or a trust, trustee, or trustees of any person, firm, corporation, or association, who, without authority of this chapter so to do, shall exercise or attemp…

§ 5435. Sales of lots, crypts, and niches; how income applied; rules (a) The income of a cemetery association, whether derived from the sale of lots, spaces, crypts, or niches for the permanent disposition of human remains, from donations, or otherwise, shall be exclusively appli…

§ 5436. Perpetual care fund A cemetery association established prior to June 1, 1933 may create a perpetual care fund out of surplus money on hand or that has been given to it by will, deed, or otherwise. A cemetery association established after such date shall create such a perp…

§ 5437. Investment A cemetery association shall invest trust funds in the same manner as town cemeteries pursuant to section 5384 of this title and may delegate the management and investment of cemetery association funds pursuant to subdivision (b)(3) of that section. (Amended 20…

§ 5438. Cemetery accounts; annual reports (a) A cemetery association shall keep and maintain adequate and correct accounts of its business transactions, which at all reasonable times shall be open to the inspection of every member of such corporation. It shall keep separate and a…

§ 5439. Dissolution of cemetery associations A cemetery association, which is not owned and operated by a church or by a religious or ecclesiastical society, may be dissolved under the provisions of 11B V.S.A. chapter 14. Upon dissolution, all lands owned or held by it for cemete…

§ 5440. Merger of cemetery associations (a) An incorporated cemetery association or society, whether chartered by special act of the General Assembly or organized under articles of association, may merge with another incorporated association or society in the same town, thereby f…

§ 5481. Acquisition of land and property—Purchase or gift The right to acquire land and property for cemetery purposes, either by purchase or gift, by towns, churches, religious or ecclesiastical societies, and cemetery associations is hereby affirmed under the conditions and res…

§ 5482. Eminent domain The right to acquire land and property for cemetery purposes by condemnation proceedings by towns and cemetery associations is hereby granted under the conditions and restrictions set forth in this chapter.

§ 5483. Acquisition of land by town When it is necessary to enlarge a public burial ground or to establish a new one, three or more freeholders of the town may apply in writing to the selectboard, setting forth such necessity with a description of the land necessary for the purpo…

§ 5484. Acquisition of gravel by town or association (a) When public necessity requires that a burial ground be raised or portions thereof filled up with gravel or earth, and the town or association owning or managing the same cannot agree with the owner of such gravel or earth f…

§ 5485. Appeal to Superior Court When, in accordance with the provisions of this chapter, a person owning or having an interest in lands taken for a burial ground, or gravel or earth for the same, is dissatisfied with such taking or with the damages awarded to the person by the s…

§ 5487. Acquisition of land by cemetery associations generally A cemetery association may acquire by gift, purchase at its fair cash market value, or devise such lands as may be necessary for its cemetery purposes. If the consent of the selectboard and local board of health is fi…

§ 5488. Enlargement of cemeteries by associations—Petition to Superior Court to acquire land When an incorporated cemetery association wishes to enlarge the limits of its burial ground, and votes to purchase additional land for permanent disposition purposes and the owner of such…

§ 5489. Service of petition; appointment of commissioners The petition with a citation shall be served on the owner of such land like a summons. On such application, the court may appoint three disinterested persons residing in some other town as commissioners.

§ 5490. Notice; hearing The commissioners shall appoint a time and place for examination of the premises and appraisal of the damages. They shall give six days’ notice thereof to the president or to one or more of the trustees of such association, and to the owner or occupant of …

§ 5491. Survey; damages When the commissioners decide that public necessity and convenience require the enlargement of such burial grounds, and the amount needed, they shall cause the same to be surveyed and shall ascertain what damages will be sustained by the owner of such land…

§ 5492. Report, filing When the commissioners have completed their inquiries, they shall make report, stating their doings and decision, with their survey and appraisal of damages. Such report shall be returned to and filed in the office of the clerk of the court within 30 days a…

§ 5493. Judgment on report; costs The court may accept or reject the report, render judgment thereon, tax costs as it deems just, and issue execution for damages and costs.

§ 5494. Title to lands taken Such cemetery association shall not take possession of such lands until the damages and costs are paid. When so paid, a valid title to the lands so taken shall vest in such association, and the same may be used for burial purposes.

§ 5531. Disposal of lot by will; descent; burial rights of husband and wife (a) The owner of a cemetery lot may dispose of same by will to any one of the owner’s relatives who may survive the owner, or to any agency owning and conducting the cemetery in which the lot is situated,…

§ 5532. Escheat of cemetery lots—Definition For the purposes of sections 5532-5537 of this title, the term “agency” shall mean town cemeteries, religious or ecclesiastical society cemeteries, and any person, firm, corporation, or unincorporated association engaged in the business…

§ 5533. Escheat when owner’s whereabouts unknown When the whereabouts of a person or his or her heirs, having legal title or color of title to a wholly unoccupied burial lot in any cemetery has been unknown for 20 years, such lot shall escheat to the agency upon petition brought …

§ 5534. Petition; hearing The cemetery commissioners or other proper officers may file a petition on behalf of the agency with the Probate Division of the Superior Court of the district where said agency is located for an inquisition in the premises. The Probate Division of the S…

§ 5535. Notice; publication Such notice shall recite the substance of the facts set forth in the petition, and the time and place at which persons claiming the burial lot may appear and be heard before the court, and shall be published at least three weeks successively, the last …

§ 5536. Order If sufficient cause is not shown to the contrary, at the time appointed for that purpose, the court shall order and decree that such lot shall escheat to the agency.

§ 5537. Heirs If an heir or other person entitled to such lot appears within 17 years after the date of such decree and files a claim with the Probate Division of the Superior Court that made such decree, and establishes a claim to such lot, the heir or other person shall have po…

§ 5571. Location A community mausoleum, as defined in section 5302 of this title, other than structures containing crypts erected or controlled by churches and religious societies and used only as a repository for the remains of the clergy or dignitaries of such churches or relig…

§ 5572. Plats Before commencing the building, construction, or erection of any such building, the agency constructing the same shall make and file a plat of such structure in accordance with the provisions of sections 5310 and 5311 of this title.

§ 5573. Construction requirements (a) A community mausoleum or columbarium, the crypts or niches of which are available to the public, shall be constructed and erected only with the consent and approval of the legislative body of the municipality and local board of health. (b) Be…

§ 5575. Use before completion prohibited A community mausoleum, columbarium, crypt, niche, or structure so erected as aforesaid shall not be used for the purpose of depositing therein the remains of any dead body until the same is finally completed and the maintenance fund requir…

§ 5576. Sales before the completion of building; bond A crypt or room in a community mausoleum, or niche in a columbarium, shall not be sold or offered for sale before such structure is entirely completed, unless and until the agency selling such crypts or niches enters into an a…

§ 5577. Mausoleum becoming untenable If a mausoleum, vault, crypt, or structure containing one or more deceased human bodies becomes a hazard to public health, and the owner or owners of the structure fail to remedy or remove the same to the satisfaction of the Department of Heal…