State Ex Rel. Londerholm v. Anderson

408 P.2d 864, 195 Kan. 649, 1965 Kan. LEXIS 450
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedDecember 11, 1965
Docket44,237
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 408 P.2d 864 (State Ex Rel. Londerholm v. Anderson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Ex Rel. Londerholm v. Anderson, 408 P.2d 864, 195 Kan. 649, 1965 Kan. LEXIS 450 (kan 1965).

Opinions

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Habman, C.:

This action was initiated to test the propriety of certain practices of defendants in selling cemetery lots and burial equipment on a pre-need basis at various cities in Kansas, and to compel compliance with certain statutes.

Norman Anderson, a Texas resident, owns all the stock in Sacred Gardens, Incorporated, a Texas corporation, and substantially all the stock in nine Kansas corporations, all being defendants herein, and appellees and cross-appellants. He or the Texas corporation purchases land near a city and then sells a part of it to the particular Kansas corporation and a cemetery is laid out. Then pursuant to [651]*651contract with the local corporation, trained sales personnel of the Texas corporation canvass the community selling cemetery lots on a pre-need basis. Approximately ninety percent of these sales are on an installment plan basis with payments extending for as much as seventy-two months and approximately ninety percent also include the sale of a burial vault and memorial marker. More detailed mention of the practices used will be made in discussing the points involved in this appeal, which for clarity will be classified under the separate headings of A. Lots; B. Burial vaults and markers; and C. Insurance. The parties will be referred to simply as plaintiff and defendants.

A. Lots. Three separate but closely related points are involved here upon appeal and cross-appeal.

1. The installment contracts provided that the defendant cemeteries would deposit into an endowment trust fund a sum equal to twenty percent of the contract price for lots for permanent maintenance of the cemeteries. The defendants established such a fund but their practice was to pay in the twenty percent only after the full amount of the contract price had been paid. The initial action was designed to compel defendants to pay in the full twenty percent upon execution of the contract. The trial court held that defendants’ obligation as to the required percentage to be paid into a permanent maintenance fund insofar as state regulation required it is fulfilled by their compliance with our statute pertinent to cemetery corporations (K. S. A. 17-1311) which provides:

“That such corporation shall fix and set aside, within the state of Kansas, a percentage of the purchase price of each burial lot sold by it, not less than ten percent (10%) thereof, for the permanent maintenance of the said cemetery, which sum so as aforesaid set aside shall be by said corporation invested in first mortgages upon Kansas real estate, or in bonds issued by any municipality of the state of Kansas, or in obligations of the United States government, except railroad-aid bonds, and the proceeds of the said permanent maintenance fund shall be used exclusively for the maintenance of said cemetery: Provided, however, No part of the principal of said fund shall ever be used for any purpose except for such investment. . . .”

Plaintiff’s challenge to this ruling is based upon the theory that a charitable trust is involved which the state has an interest in upholding. It is true that as to certain charities of a character so public as to interest the whole community the attorney general of the state has duties to uphold and enforce (see Troutman v. DeBoissiere, 66 Kan. 1, 71 Pac. 286). So also the public is interested [652]*652in tihe maintenance of cemeteries including those operated for profit as are defendants. We believe, insofar as applicable to the point at issue, the extent of that interest is that expressed by the legislature in the statute, K. S. A. 17-1311. When the legislature has clearly spoken defining the policy of the state in a given area there is no place for judicial definition. In Reser v. Southern Kansas Mutual Ins. Co., 150 Kan. 58, 91 P. 2d 25, this court quoted from United States v. Freight Association, 166 U. S. 290, 340, 41 L. ed. 1007, 17 S. Ct. 540, as follows:

. . when the lawmaking power speaks upon a particular subject, over which it has constitutional power to legislate, public policy in such a case is what the statute enacts.’” (p. 64.)

We hold the trial court correctly ruled that ten percent was the proper percentage figure to be enforced in this action. It must be emphasized the result reached is in no wise to be construed as affecting private contractual rights and obligations of the parties to the particular contracts or that they would not be enforced in an appropriate proceeding.

2. The trial court ruled that defendants were required to pay ten percent of each installment payment into the statutory permanent maintenance fund at the time each of said installments was received. By way of cross-appeal defendants challenge this ruling, claiming that K. S. A. 17-1311 does not require any payments to be made into the permanent maintenance fund until the full purchase price of the lots is paid and the sale completed. They point to the contract provisions that a deed to the lots is not to be delivered until after full payment, ergo, there is no sale until full payment is made, and no maintenance payment is required until the lots are sold. The statute, originally enacted in 1901 (Laws 1901, ch. 102, §5), expressed the public concern in maintaining in a seemly manner places set apart as burial grounds and in preventing the maintenance of privately developed public cemeteries from becoming public charges. Being of a remedial nature it is to be liberally construed to effectuate the purpose for which it was enacted (Van Doren v. Etchen, 112 Kan. 380, 383, 211 Pac. 144). We think the narrow construction of the statute urged by defendants would tend to defeat that purpose. It must be remembered defendants operate as a business venture, for profit, and there are many possibilities whereby money received from the sale of lots might be diverted'without adequate provision for maintenance and care [653]*653of the cemeteries, which is exactly what the statute seeks to prevent.

We are unwilling to place such meticulous or technical definition on the words “purchase price” and “sold” as used in the statute as would defeat its manifest intention. For the practical purposes of the statute a lot is “sold” and part of the “purchase price” is required to be set aside when the terms of purchase are agreed upon and purchase money is received pursuant thereto.

We construe the statute to mean, as did the trial court, that when money is received in installments by defendants pursuant to installment contract for the sale of lots—whether a deed is delivered or not and whether the sale is to be deemed technically completed or not—at least ten percent of such installment payment shall be set aside for the permanent maintenance fund.

3. Plaintiff contends the court erred in holding that the percentage required to be deposited by the defendants in the perpetual maintenance fund should be figured on only one purchase price, even though a lot might be sold more than once in case the original purchaser defaulted on his installment payments. We are cited to no authority for this contention and we are aware of no compelling reason why the statute in question should be so extended in order to effectuate its purpose. We think the statute contemplates no more than a single purchase price, as the trial court ruled.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Maryland Attorney General Opinion 98 OAG 003
Maryland Attorney General Reports, 2013
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. Stonewall Insurance
71 P.3d 1097 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 2003)
Attorney General Opinion No.
Kansas Attorney General Reports, 2000
State Ex Rel. Stephan v. Commemorative Services Corp.
823 P.2d 831 (Court of Appeals of Kansas, 1991)
In Re Stutterheima
109 B.R. 1006 (D. Kansas, 1988)
Stang v. Caragianis
757 P.2d 279 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1988)
Kansas State Board of Pharmacy v. Wilson
657 P.2d 83 (Court of Appeals of Kansas, 1983)
Gracelawn Memorial Park, Inc. v. State
424 A.2d 36 (Superior Court of Delaware, 1980)
State Ex Rel. Stephan v. Lane
614 P.2d 987 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1980)
Smith v. Marshall
587 P.2d 320 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1978)
Smith v. Marshall Ex Rel. Marshall
577 P.2d 362 (Court of Appeals of Kansas, 1978)
Bell v. Employee Security Benefit Ass'n
437 F. Supp. 382 (D. Kansas, 1977)
People Ex Rel. Lindberg v. Memorial Consultants, Inc.
366 N.E.2d 127 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1977)
Lakeview Gardens, Inc. v. State Ex Rel. Schneider
557 P.2d 1286 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1976)
Westover v. Schaffer
468 P.2d 251 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1970)
Melton v. Prickett
456 P.2d 34 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1969)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
408 P.2d 864, 195 Kan. 649, 1965 Kan. LEXIS 450, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-londerholm-v-anderson-kan-1965.