Public cemetery districts: interment rights.

Existing law, the Public Cemetery District Law, specifies the procedures for the formation of public cemetery districts, procedures for the selection of the district board of trustees and officers, and the powers and duties of the board. Existing law authorizes a public cemetery district to sell "interment rights," defined as the right to use or control the use of a plot, niche, or other space in a public cemetery district for interment of human remains. Existing law provides for the succession of an interment plot in a private cemetery. This bill would modify the definition of "interment rights" to, among other things, specify that those rights are a transferable property interest held by the owner to determine, among other things, the number and identity of any person or persons to be interred in the plot within a public cemetery. The bill would require the owner of an interment right, at the time of purchase, to designate a successor owner or owners in a signed written designation deposited with the cemetery district. The bill would provide that the intestate order of succession would apply, if the owner dies without making that written designation or a valid and enforceable disposition of the interment right by a specific devise in a testamentary device. The bill would also require the public cemetery district to follow specified procedures in the event that the owner dies with no heirs at law. The bill also would provide the circumstances and process under which human remains may be disinterred, reinterred, or removed from a public cemetery district after interment, and would specify the records required to be maintained by the public cemetery district and the person removing and relocating the human remains. The bill would require a person who purports to be the successor owner of an interment right to execute a written affidavit, under penalty of perjury, that includes specified information regarding his or her claim of successorship, and would provide that a district or district employee or trustee is not liable for claims, losses, or damages resulting from transferring an interment right in reliance on that affidavit, except as provided. By expanding the scope of the crime of perjury and imposing new duties on public cemetery districts, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.