45:27-16 Duties, powers of cemetery company; restrictions.

16. a. A cemetery company shall:

(1) adopt reasonable regulations for the use, management and protection of the cemetery and of all interment spaces in it; for regulating the dividing marks between graves; for prohibiting or regulating the erection of structures; for preventing unsightly monuments, effigies and structures within the cemetery, and for their removal;

(2) fix reasonable charges for interment spaces, niches, products and services offered by the cemetery company; and

(3) keep its books, records and accounts so as to reflect the conduct of its business.

b. A cemetery company may:

(1) prohibit the placement of memorials, effigies or structures on parts of the cemetery and adopt reasonable regulations relating to uniformity, class, composition, material, kinds and sizes of all markers, monuments and other structures within the cemetery provided that the regulations are not established to prevent competition;

(2) sell adornments, embellishments, sod and plantings for use in the cemetery;

(3) prevent the use of interment spaces or niches for purposes that violate the cemetery restrictions and regulations;

(4) regulate the conduct of persons and prevent improper assemblages in the cemetery;

(5) reserve to the cemetery the exclusive right to open and fill graves, furnish equipment, manufacture and install foundations, set and seal crypts and vaults, seal niches and install flush memorials;

(6) regulate or prevent the introduction of embellishments or plants within the cemetery;

(7) prevent the interment in any interment space of human remains not entitled to interment there;

(8) as provided in this act, make provisions for the removal at the cost of the lot owner of any memorial, effigy or structure when either placed in violation of cemetery company rules and regulations or when it becomes dangerous or unsightly; and

(9) to the extent allowed by the regulations of the board, prohibit the interment of human remains or the placement of any memorial when there are any outstanding charges against the interment space.

c. A cemetery company, and any person engaged in the management, operation or control of a cemetery owned by a cemetery company, directly or indirectly, is specifically prohibited from engaging, directly or indirectly, in any of the following activities:

(1) the manufacture or sale of memorials;

(2) the manufacture or sale of private mausoleums;

(3) the manufacture or sale of vaults, including vaults installed in a grave before or after sale and including vaults joined with each other in the ground; and

(4) the conduct of any funeral home or the business or profession of mortuary science; provided that crematoriums operated in conjunction with funeral homes prior to December 1, 1971 are excepted from the provisions of this paragraph (4).

L.2003,c.261,s.16.