§ 34-13-1 — Definitions

Alabama § 34-13-1

• Jurisdiction: Alabama
• Title 34: Professions and Businesses
• Ch. 13: Funeral Services
• Art. 1: General Provisions

Text

(a) For purposes of this chapter, the following terms have the following meanings:
(1) ACCREDITED SCHOOL OR COLLEGE OF MORTUARY SCIENCE. A school or college approved by the American Board of Funeral Service Education, or a successor organization, which maintains a course of instruction of not less than 48 calendar weeks or four academic quarters or college terms and which gives a course of instruction in the fundamental subjects related to funeral service and mortuary science education as approved by the American Board of Funeral Service Education, or a successor organization, and other courses of instruction in fundamental subjects as may be prescribed by the Alabama Board of Funeral Services.
(2) ALKALINE HYDROLYSIS. The technical process that reduces human remains to bone fragments using heat, water, and chemical agents.
(3) ALTERNATIVE CONTAINER. A nonmetal receptacle or enclosure, without ornamentation or a fixed interior lining, which is designed for the encasement of human remains and which is made of cardboard, pressed-wood, composition materials, with or without an outside covering, pouches of canvas, or other materials.
(4)
AMERICAN BOARD OF FUNERAL SERVICE EDUCATION. The national academic accreditation agency for college and university programs in funeral service and mortuary science education. The accrediting function of the American Board of Funeral Service Education is recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council on Higher Education Accreditation.
(5)
APPRENTICE EMBALMER or EMBALMER’S APPRENTICE. Any person engaged in the study of the art of embalming under the instructions and supervision of a licensed embalmer practicing in this state.
(6)
APPRENTICE FUNERAL DIRECTOR or FUNERAL DIRECTOR’S APPRENTICE. Any person operating under or in association with a funeral director for the purpose of learning the business or profession of funeral director, to the end that he or she may become licensed under this chapter.
(7) AT-NEED. At the time of death or immediately following death.
(8)
AUTHORIZING AGENT. A person at least 18 years of age, except in the case of a surviving spouse or parent, who is legally entitled to order the cremation or final disposition of particular human remains.
(9) BASIC SERVICES FEE. The fee for the professional services of the funeral director and staff that is added to the total cost of the funeral arrangements. The term includes a charge for services performed in conducting the arrangements conference, planning the funeral, securing the necessary permits, preparing the notices, and coordinating the cemetery or crematory arrangements.
(10) BELOW-GROUND CRYPT. A preplaced enclosed chamber, usually constructed of reinforced concrete, poured in place or a precast unit installed in quantity, either side-by-side or multiple depth, and covered by earth or sod and known also as a lawn crypt or turf-top crypt.
(11) BENEFICIARY. One who benefits from an act, such as one for whom a preneed contract is entered into or the successor-in-interest of a life insurance policy.
(12)
BOARD. The Alabama Board of Funeral Services.
(13) BRANCH. Any person or entity that is part of a common business enterprise that has a certificate of authority issued pursuant to Article 5 and elects to operate under a name other than that of the common business enterprise.
(14) BURIAL. The placement of human remains in a grave space or lawn crypt.
(15)
CASH ADVANCE ITEMS. Any item of service or merchandise described to a purchaser using the term cash advance, accommodation, cash disbursement, or similar term. A cash advance item is also any item obtained from a third party and paid for by a funeral provider on behalf of a purchaser. Cash advance items include, but are not limited to, all of the following:
a. Cemetery or crematory services.
b. Pallbearers.
c. Public or other transportation.
d. Clergy honoraria.
e. Flowers.
f. Musicians or singers.
g. Nurses.
h. Obituary notices.
i. Funeral programs.
j. Gratuities.
k. Death certificates.
l. Outer burial containers.
m. Cemetery plots.
n. Escorts.
(16)
CASKET. A rigid container designed for the encasement of human remains
which is usually constructed of wood, metal, or similar material and ornamented and lined with fabric
.
(17)
CEMETERY. A place
established, maintained, managed, operated, or improved which is
dedicated to and used or intended to be used for the permanent interment of human remains
and their memorialization
. It may be either land or earth interment;
a columbarium;
a mausoleum for vault or crypt entombment; a structure or place used or intended to be used for the interment of cremated remains; cryogenic storage; or any combination of one or more thereof.
(18)
CEMETERY AUTHORITY. Any individual, person, firm, profit or nonprofit corporation, trustee, partnership, society, religious society, church association or denomination, municipality, or other group or entity, however organized, insofar as they or any of them may now or hereafter establish, own, operate, lease, control, or manage one or more cemeteries, burial parks, mausoleums, columbariums, or any combination or variation thereof, or hold lands or structures for burial grounds or burial purposes in this state and engage in the operation of a cemetery, including any one or more of the following: The care and maintenance of a cemetery; the interment, entombment, and memorialization of the human dead in a cemetery; the sale, installation, care, maintenance, or any combination thereof, with respect to monuments, markers, foundations, memorials, burial vaults, urns, crypts, mausoleums, columbariums, flower vases, floral arrangements, and other cemetery accessories for installation or use within a cemetery; and the supervision and conduct of funeral and burial services within the bounds of the cemetery.
(19) CEMETERY MERCHANDISE. Any
personal
property offered for sale, contracted for sale, or sold for use in connection with the burial, final disposition, memorialization, interment, entombment, or inurnment of human remains by a cemetery authority. The term specifically includes, but is not limited to, the casket, the alternative container, the outer burial container, and the memorial
.
(20) CEMETERY SERVICES. At-need or preneed services provided by a cemetery authority for interment, entombment, inurnment, and installation of cemetery merchandise.
(21) CERTIFICATE HOLDER. A funeral establishment, cemetery authority, third-party seller, or any other person to whom a valid certificate of authority to sell preneed contracts has been granted by the board.
(22) COLUMBARIUM. A structure or room or space in a building or structure used or intended to be used for the inurnment of cremated remains.
(23)
CONVICTION. The entry of a plea of guilty or a guilty verdict rendered by any court of competent jurisdiction, excluding traffic violations.
(24)
CREMATED REMAINS. Human remains recovered after the completion of the cremation process, including pulverization, which leaves only bone fragments reduced to unidentifiable dimensions, and the residue of any foreign materials that were cremated with the human remains.
(25) CREMATED REMAINS CONTAINER. A receptacle in which cremated remains are placed.
(26)
CREMATION. The technical irreversible process, using heat, flames, or chemical agents, that reduces human remains to bone fragments. The reduction takes place through heat and evaporation. Cremation shall include the processing, and may include the pulverization, of the bone fragments. Cremation is a process and is a method of final disposition.
(27)
CREMATIONIST. A person licensed by the board to perform the procedure of cremation.
(28)
CREMATION CHAMBER. The retort or vessel used to reduce human remains to bone fragments.
(29)
CREMATION CONTAINER. The container in which human remains are transported to a crematory, in which human remains are placed upon arrival at a crematory, or for storage and placement in a cremation chamber for cremation.
(30)
CREMATORY. A building or portion of a building that houses a cremation chamber and that may house a holding facility for purposes of cremation and as part of a funeral establishment.
(31) CREMATORY AUTHORITY. Any person who owns or controls a crematory.
(32) DEATH CERTIFICATE. A legal document containing vital statistics pertaining to the life and death of the deceased.
(33) DECEASED or DECEDENT. One who is no longer living.
(34)
EMBALMER. Any person engaged, or holding himself or herself out as engaged, in the business, practice, science, or profession of embalming, whether on his or her own behalf or in the employ of a registered and licensed funeral director.
(35)
EMBALMING. The practice, science, or profession, as commonly practiced, of preserving, disinfecting, and preparing by application of chemicals or other effectual methods, human dead for burial, cremation, or transportation.
(36) ENCASEMENT. The placement of human remains in a rigid container including, but not limited to, a casket or urn.
(37) ENDOWMENT CARE. The maintenance and repair of all places in a cemetery, subject to the rules of the cemetery authority. The term may also be referred to as endowed care, perpetual care, improvement care, or permanent care.
(38) ENDOWMENT CARE TRUST FUND. An irrevocable trust fund set aside by law with a trustee, along with the income therefrom, to provide for the endowment care of a cemetery.
(39) ENTOMBMENT. The act of placing human remains in a mausoleum crypt.
(40) FINAL DISPOSITION. The lawful disposal of human remains whether by interment, cremation, or other method.
(41)
FUNERAL. A ceremony for celebrating, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. A funeral may be divided into the following two parts:
a. The funeral service, which may take place at a funeral home, church, or other place.
b. The committal service or disposition, which may take place by the grave, tomb, mausoleum, or crematory where the body of the decedent is to be buried or cremated.
(42)
FUNERAL ARRANGEMENTS. The completing of funeral service arrangements, cremation arrangements, and the financial details of a funeral at the time of death. The term includes the collection of vital statistic information, death certificate information, and obituary and funeral notice completion, the completion of a statement of funeral goods and services selected, the organizing of funeral and memorial services for families, and the ordering of cash advance items.
(43) FUNERAL BENEFICIARY. The person or persons who will receive the benefit of the funeral and cemetery goods and services to be delivered under a preneed contract at the time of his, her, or their death.
(44)
FUNERAL DIRECTING. The practice of directing or supervising funerals, the practice of preparing dead human bodies for burial by means other than embalming, or the preparation for the
final
disposition of dead human bodies; the making of funeral arrangements or providing for funeral services or the making of financial arrangements for the rendering of these services; the provision or maintenance of a place for the preparation for
final
disposition of dead human bodies; the use of the terms funeral director, undertaker, mortician, funeral parlor, or any other term from which can be implied the practice of funeral directing; or the holding out to the public that one is a funeral director or engaged in a practice described in this subdivision.
(45)
FUNERAL DIRECTOR. A person required to be licensed to practice the profession of funeral directing under the laws of this state, who consults with the public, who plans details of funeral services with members of the family and minister or any other person responsible for such planning, or who directs, is in charge, or apparent charge of, and supervises funeral service in a funeral home, church, or other place; who enters into the making, negotiation, or completion of financial arrangements for funeral services, or who uses in connection with the profession of funeral directing the terms funeral director, undertaker, funeral counselor, mortician, or any other term or picture or combination thereof when considered in context in which used, from which can be implied the practicing of the profession of funeral directing or that the person using such term or picture can be implied to be holding himself or herself out to the public as being engaged in the profession of funeral directing; and for all purposes under Alabama law, a funeral director is considered a professional. For the purposes of this chapter, the term does not include any cemetery authority.
(46)
FUNERAL ESTABLISHMENTS. The term includes any funeral home or mortuary service located at a specific street address where the profession of funeral directing, embalming, or cremation is practiced in the care, planning, and preparation for burial, cremation, or transportation of human dead. A funeral establishment shall consist of and maintain all of the following facilities:
a. A preparation room equipped with sanitary nonporous floor and wall and necessary drainage and ventilation, and containing operating embalming equipment, necessary approved tables, instruments, hot and cold running water, containers or receptacles for soiled linen or clothing, and supplies for the preparation and embalming of dead human bodies for burial, cremation, and transportation.
b. A display room containing a stock of adult caskets and funeral supplies displayed in full size, cuts, photographs, or electronic images. At no time shall less than eight different adult size caskets be on the premises.
c. At least one operating funeral coach or hearse properly licensed and equipped for transporting human remains in a casket or urn.
d. If engaged in the practice of cremation, the establishment shall satisfy all crematory requirements provided in this chapter and have on site an adequate supply of urns for display and sale.
e. A room suitable for public viewing or other funeral services that is a minimum of 1,000 square feet.
f. An office for holding arrangement conferences with relatives or authorizing agents.
(47) FUNERAL SERVICE. At-need or preneed services provided by a funeral establishment in connection with funeral directing, final disposition of human remains, or installation of memorials.
(48)
FUNERAL SUPPLIES or FUNERAL MERCHANDISE. Any item offered for sale, contracted for sale, or sold for use in connection with funeral directing or funeral services when sold by a funeral director including, but not limited to, caskets, alternative containers, outer burial containers, urns, memorials, clothing used to dress human dead when sold by a funeral director, and all equipment and accoutrements normally required for the preparation for burial or funeral and other disposition of human dead.
(49) GRAVE SPACE. A space of ground in a cemetery that is used or intended to be used for in-ground burial.
(50)
GROSS IMMORALITY. Willful, flagrant, or shameful immorality or showing a moral indifference to the opinions of the good and respectable members of the community and to the just obligations of the position held by the offender.
(51)
HOLDING ROOM. Either of the following:
a. A room within a funeral establishment that satisfies the requirements of a branch location as provided in this chapter or board rule, for the retention of human remains before
final
disposition.
b. A room within a crematory facility, designated for the retention of human remains before and after cremation, that is not accessible to the public.
(52) HUMAN REMAINS. The body of a decedent in any stage of decomposition, including cremated remains.
(53) INTERMENT. The final disposition of human remains by burial, burial at sea, entombment, or inurnment.
(54) INTERMENT RIGHT. The right to inter human remains in a particular interment space in a cemetery.
(55) INTERMENT SPACE. A space intended for the final disposition of human remains including, but not limited to, a grave space, mausoleum crypt, niche, or below-ground crypt.
(56) INURNMENT. The act of placing cremated remains in a receptacle including, but not limited to, an urn and depositing it in a niche.
(57) LICENSEE. Any individual, firm, corporation, partnership, joint venture, or limited liability company that obtains a license, certificate, or registration in accordance with this chapter.
(58)
MANAGING CREMATIONIST. A licensed funeral director and cremationist who has full charge, control, and supervision of all activities involving cremation at a funeral establishment or crematory.
(59)
MANAGING EMBALMER. A licensed embalmer who has full charge, control, and supervision of all activities involving the preparation room and embalming.
(60)
MANAGING FUNERAL DIRECTOR. A licensed funeral director who has full charge, control, and supervision of all activities involving funeral directing for a funeral establishment.
(61) MAUSOLEUM. A chamber or structure used or intended to be used for entombment.
(62) MAUSOLEUM CRYPT. A chamber of a mausoleum of sufficient size for entombment of human remains.
(63) MEMORIAL. Any product, other than a mausoleum or columbarium, used for identifying an interment space or for commemoration of the life, deeds, or career of some decedent including, but not limited to, a monument, marker, niche plate, urn garden plaque, crypt plate, cenotaph, marker bench, and vase.
(64) MEMORIAL RETAILER. Any person offering or selling memorials at retail to the public.
(65) MEMORIALIZATION. Any permanent system designed to mark or record the names and other data pertaining to a decedent.
(66)
MORAL TURPITUDE. Any unlawful sexual or violent act, or any act involving theft, theft of services,
theft by deception,
extortion, receiving stolen property, identity theft, forgery, fraud, tampering with records, bribery, perjury, or any similar act in any jurisdiction.
(67)
MORTUARY SCIENCE. The scientific, professional, and practical aspects, with due consideration given to accepted practices, covering the care, preparation for burial, or transportation of dead human bodies, which shall include the preservation and sanitation of the bodies and restorative art and those aspects related to public health, jurisprudence, and good business administration.
(68)
MORTUARY SERVICE. A location with a specific street address where embalming or cremation, or both, is practiced for a licensed funeral establishment and where no services or merchandise are sold directly or at retail to the public. A mortuary service shall consist of and maintain all of the following facilities:
a. A preparation room equipped with sanitary nonporous floor and walls, operating embalming equipment, and necessary drainage and ventilation, and containing necessary approved tables, instruments, hot and cold running water, containers or receptacles for soiled linen or clothing, and supplies for the preparation and embalming of dead human bodies for burial, cremation, and transportation.
b. At least one operating motor vehicle properly licensed and equipped for transporting human remains in a casket or urn.
c. If engaged in the practice of cremation, the establishment shall satisfy all requirements for a crematory provided in this chapter.
(69) NICHE. A space usually within a columbarium used or intended to be used for inurnment of cremated remains.
(70)
OPERATOR. A person, corporation, firm, legal representative,
managing funeral director, general manager,
or other organization owning or operating a funeral establishment
or cemetery
.
(71) OUTER BURIAL CONTAINER. A rigid container that is designed for placement in the grave space around the casket or the urn including, but not limited to, containers commonly known as burial vaults, grave boxes, and grave liners.
(72) PERSON. Any individual, firm, corporation, partnership, joint venture, limited liability company, association, trustee, government or governmental subdivision, agency, or other entity, or any combination thereof.
(73)
PRACTICAL EMBALMER. Any person who has been actively and continuously engaged or employed in the practice of embalming under the supervision of a licensed embalmer for four consecutive years immediately preceding May 1, 1975, and has been issued a license as a practical embalmer under the grandfather provisions of this chapter.
(74) PREARRANGEMENT. Completing the details for selection of merchandise or services on a preneed basis, which may or may not include prefunding or prepayment.
(75) PREDEVELOPED. Designated areas or buildings within a cemetery that have been mapped and planned for future construction but are not yet completed.
(76) PREDEVELOPED INTERMENT SPACE. An interment space that is planned for future construction but is not yet completed.
(77) PREFUND. Completing the financial details of a prearrangement, which include prefunding or prepayment.
(78) PRENEED. Any time prior to death.
(79) PRENEED CONTRACT. A written contract to purchase funeral merchandise, funeral services, cemetery merchandise, or cemetery services from the seller on a preneed basis.
(80) PRENEED CONTRACT TRUST FUND. The funds received pursuant to a preneed contract which are required by law to be held in trust until the merchandise or services purchased pursuant to the contract are delivered or provided or until otherwise lawfully withdrawn.
(81) PRENEED SALES AGENT. A person who is in the business of selling preneed contracts.
(82)
PROCESSING or PULVERIZATION. The reduction of identifiable bone fragments after the completion of the cremation process to unidentifiable bone fragments or granulated particles by manual or mechanical means.
(83) PROVIDER. The person, who may or may not be the seller, who actually provides merchandise and services under the terms of a preneed contract.
(84) PURCHASE PRICE. The amount paid by the purchaser for merchandise and services purchased under a preneed contract, exclusive of finance charges, sales tax, charges relating to interment rights, arrangement conference fees, or charges for credit life insurance.
(85) PURCHASER. The person who purchases a preneed contract either on his or her behalf or on behalf of a third-party beneficiary.
(86) RELIGIOUS INSTITUTION. An organization formed primarily for religious purposes which has applied and qualified for exemption from federal income tax as an exempt organization under 26 U.S.C.
§
501(c)(3).
(87) SCATTERING. The lawful dispersion of cremated remains.
(88) SELLER. Any person offering or selling merchandise or services on a preneed basis, including, but not limited to, funeral establishments, cemetery authorities, crematory authorities, and memorial retailers.
(89) SPECIAL CARE. Any care provided, or to be provided, that is supplemental to or in excess of endowment care, in accordance with the specific directions of any donor of funds for those purposes.
(90) SUCCESSOR-IN-INTEREST. A person who lawfully follows another in ownership or control of property or rights.
(91)
TEMPORARY CONTAINER. A receptacle for cremated remains, usually composed of cardboard, plastic, or similar material, that can be closed in a manner that prevents the leakage or spillage of the cremated remains or the entrance of foreign material, and is a single container of sufficient size to hold the cremated remains until an urn is acquired or the cremated remains are scattered or buried.
(92) THIRD-PARTY SELLER. Any person, who is not a funeral establishment or a cemetery authority, engaged in the sale of preneed funeral merchandise or cemetery merchandise.
(93) TRUSTEE. Any person, state or national bank, trust company, or federally insured savings and loan association lawfully appointed as fiduciary over funds deposited by one or more purchasers of a preneed contract or deposited pursuant to an endowment care trust fund. The term does not refer to a board of trustees.
(94)
URN. A receptacle designed to encase cremated remains.
(b) Nothing in this chapter shall require a funeral director or funeral establishment to have or provide a chapel or to restrict the conduct of funeral services from a church or chapel.

Legislative History

(Acts 1975, No. 214, p. 705, §2; Acts 1983, No. 83-746, p. 1235, §1; Act 2002-239, p. 498, §1; Act 2011-623, p. 1439, §1; Act 2014-125, p. 206, §1; Act 2016-265, p. 652, §1; Act 2017-433, §1; Act 2022-339, §1; Act 2023-94, §1.)