§ 8-182 — Acquisition of existing cemeteries - Written reports -

Hearings - Determination - Exceptions. (a) Any corporation, association, individual, partnership, trust, or any other organization however constituted which after the effective date of this act locates or establishes a cemetery, providing a grave, vault, columbarium, public mausoleum or other receptacle for the burial of dead human remains, in any county of the state, shall be subject to the provisions of this act. (b) No corporation, association, individual, partnership, trust or any other organization however constituted, shall after the effective date of this act purchase or acquire, directly or indirectly, any interest in or the control of an existing cemetery or property which has been used as a burial ground in any county of this state, for the purpose of engaging in the business of the ownership, establishment, maintenance or operation of a cemetery, providing a grave, vault, columbarium, public mausoleum or other receptacle for the burial of dead human remains, unless and until a written report thereof is made to the board of county commissioners wherein the cemetery or burial ground is located, and an approval order is issued by the board to such organization prior to such purchase or acquisition. The written report shall be made and subscribed to by the interested parties, and shall be in such form and detail as the board shall prescribe and require. In the event the board finds, after the written report is made and a hearing held thereon, that the proposed purchase or acquisition and the consummation thereof will result in an evasion or avoidance of this act in that the organization proposing to so purchase or acquire intends to substantially change or alter the method or plan of operation of the cemetery or burial ground, which is hereby declared to constitute the location and establishment of cemetery after the effective date of this act, then and in that event the board shall issue an order disapproving the proposed purchase or acquisition, and it shall be unlawful for such purchase or acquisition, to be thereafter consummated unless and until such organization applies for and is issued a certificate of authority as provided by Section 3 of this act. In the event the board finds, after the written report is made and a hearing held thereon, that the proposed purchase or acquisition and the consummation thereof will not result in an evasion or avoidance of this act as hereinbefore provided, then and in that event the board shall issue an order approving the proposed purchase or acquisition and such organization shall not be required to apply for and be issued a certificate of authority as provided by Section 3 of this act. This subsection shall not apply to or affect the inheritance of any interest in or the control of a cemetery, mausoleum or burial ground. (c) The provisions of this act shall not apply to a municipal, religious, fraternal, rural community, township, state, county and nonprofit corporate cemeteries and free community burial grounds which are subject to and regulated by Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 5 of Title 8, Oklahoma Statutes 1951; nor to cemeteries operated by charitable and eleemosynary institutions. (d) The provisions of this act shall not apply to or affect the purchase or acquisition by an existing cemetery of additional real property which is immediately adjacent and adjoining to such cemetery nor to the construction of a mausoleum or columbarium on the real property of a cemetery.

Legislative History

Laws 1955, p. 104, § 2.