Article 3 - Family Interment Plots

California Health and Safety Code — §§ 8650-8653

Sections (5)

Amended by Stats. 2001, Ch. 516, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2002.

(a)Whenever an interment of the remains of a member or of a relative of a member of the family of the record owner or of the remains of the record owner is made in a plot transferred by deed or certificate of ownership to an individual owner, the plot shall become the family plot of the owner.

(b)If the owner dies without making disposition of the plot either in his or her will by a specific devise, or by a written declaration filed and recorded in the office of the cemetery authority, any unoccupied portions of the plot shall pass according to the laws of intestate succession as set forth in Sections 6400 to 6413, inclusive, of the Probate Code.

(c)As of January 1, 2002, any unoccupied portions of a family plot that became inalienable pursuant to this section as it read on December 31, 2001, shall no longer be inalienable and shall pass according to the laws of intestate succession as set forth in Sections 6400 to 6413, inclusive, of the Probate Code. No sale, transfer, or donation of any unused portion of a family plot made alienable under this subdivision shall be made unless all persons entitled to interment in the family plot under Sections 8651 and 8652 are deceased or have expressly waived in writing the right to be interred in the family plot.

(d)The seller of a cemetery plot shall notify the buyer that unused portions of a family plot may pass through intestate succession unless written disposition is made by the buyer and may be sold, transferred, or donated by the buyer’s heirs. The seller shall notify the buyer of the effect of a future transfer, sale, or donation of the unused portion of a family plot on any endowment for care or maintenance of the plot that the buyer may purchase in conjunction with the purchase of the cemetery plot.

§ 8650.5

Added by Stats. 2001, Ch. 516, Sec. 2. Effective January 1, 2002.

An affidavit executed by a person who is the owner of the plot by virtue of the laws of intestate succession or by his or her attorney-in-fact, setting forth the fact of the death of the owner, the absence of a disposition of the plot by the owner in his or her will by a specific devise, the name of the person or persons who have rights to the plot under the intestate succession laws of the state, and the consent of that person or those persons to the sale of the plot by the cemetery authority, shall constitute complete authorization to the cemetery authority to permit any sale of the unoccupied portions of the plot.

§ 8651

Enacted by Stats. 1939, Ch. 60.

In a family plot one grave, niche or crypt may be used for the owner’s interment; one for the owner’s surviving spouse, if any, who by law has a vested right of interment in it; and in those remaining, if any, the parents and children of the deceased owner in order of death may be interred without the consent of any person claiming any interest in the plot.

§ 8652

Enacted by Stats. 1939, Ch. 60.

If no parent or child survives, the right of interment goes in the order of death first, to the spouse of any child of the record owner and second, in the order of death to the next heirs at law of the owner or the spouse of any heir at law.

§ 8653

Amended by Stats. 1945, Ch. 848.

Any surviving spouse, parent, child or heir who has a right of interment in a family plot may waive such right in favor of any other relative, or spouse of a relative of either the deceased owner or of his spouse, and upon such waiver the remains of the person in whose favor the waiver is made may be interred in the plot.