Section 10 – Town Burial Places
Section 10. Each town shall provide one or more suitable places for the interment of persons dying within its limits.
Section 10a – Municipality Ownership of Unclaimed Graves; Reuse of Occupied Graves
Section 10A. No municipality shall take over the ownership of an unoccupied grave unless a minimum of seventy-five years has elapsed after issuance of a license for the grave by the municipality or its predecessor in interest; and the municipality cannot locate the license holder or the holder’s successor in interest after making a diligent […]
Section 11 – Public Cemeteries; Taking of Land for Burial Purposes; Application to County Commissioners
Section 11. If there is necessity for a new cemetery in a town, or for the enlargement of an existing cemetery in and belonging to a town, and the owner or any person interested in the land needed for either purpose refuses to sell the same, or demands therefor a price which the selectmen consider […]
Section 12 – Public Cemeteries; Taking of Land for Burial Places; Hearing Notice
Section 12. The commissioners shall appoint a time and place for a hearing, and shall cause notice thereof and a copy of the petition to be served personally upon the owner, if known, or left at his place of abode, fourteen days at least before the time appointed for the hearing. If the land is […]
Section 13 – Public Cemeteries; Adjudication by Commissioners; Taking
Section 13. The commissioners shall hear the parties at the time and place appointed or at an adjournment thereof, shall adjudicate upon the necessity of such taking, upon the quantity and boundaries of any land adjudged necessary to be taken, and may take in fee under chapter seventy-nine on behalf of the town such land […]
Section 14 – Public Cemeteries; Compensation of Commissioners Acting Under Petition to Take Land for Burial Place
Section 14. Each commissioner shall be paid by the town three dollars a day for each day spent in acting under the petition, and five cents a mile for travel to and from the place of hearing.
Section 15 – Appropriation for Enclosing and Improving Public Cemetery; Sale or Conveyance of Burial Rights; Disposition of Proceeds
Section 15. Towns may appropriate money for enclosing any cemetery lawfully provided by them or for constructing paths and avenues and embellishing the grounds therein, and may establish all necessary rules relative thereto consistent with law. They may lay out such cemetery into lots, and shall set apart a suitable portion as a public burial […]
Section 16 – Appropriation for and Care of Public Cemeteries
Section 16. Any town may annually appropriate and raise by taxation such sums as may be necessary to care for and keep in good order and to protect by proper fences any or all burial grounds within the town in which ten or more bodies are interred and which are not properly cared for by […]
Section 17 – Preservation of Ancient Burial Places
Section 17. A town shall not alienate or appropriate to any other use than that of a burial ground, any tract of land which has been for more than one hundred years used as a burial place; and no portion of such burial ground shall be taken for public use without special authority from the […]
Section 18 – Care of Neglected Burial Places Within Limits of Town
Section 18. Any town having within its limits an abandoned or neglected burying ground may take charge of the same and keep it in good order, and may appropriate money therefor, but no property rights shall be violated and no body shall be disinterred. No fence, tomb, monument or other structure shall be removed or […]
Section 19 – Deposits for Care and Improvement of Burial Places or Lots; Records; Investment of Deposits
Section 19. A city or town may receive, hold and apply any funds, money or securities deposited with the treasurer thereof for the preservation, care, improvement or embellishment of any public or private burial place situated therein, or of burial lots situated in such burial places. Such funds, money or securities shall be entered upon […]
Section 1a – Organization of Cemetery Corporations
Section 1A. Five or more persons desirous of procuring, establishing and preparing a cemetery, or who are the majority in interest of the proprietors of an existing cemetery, may organize as a corporation, not for profit, in the manner provided in chapter 179; provided, however, that the corporation shall not sell or impair the right […]
Section 1b – Cemetery Corporations; Liability of Directors, Officers or Trustees
Section 1B. A person who serves as director, officer or trustee of a nonprofit cemetery qualified as a tax exempt organization under section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code and who is not compensated for those services shall not be liable for an act or omission resulting in damages or injury to another person if […]
Section 2 – Powers and Duties of Cemetery Corporations
Section 2. (a) Such corporation: (1) shall be subject to chapter 155 and sections 1 to 13, inclusive, of chapter 179; (2) may take and hold only so much real and personal property as may be necessary for the objects of its organization; (3) may lay out such real property into lots; and (4) may […]
Section 20 – Public Cemeteries; Depositing Funds With State Treasurer; Copy of Instrument; Notice to Town or City Clerk
Section 20. Money declared by written instrument to be intended for perpetual care, maintenance, improvement or embellishment of any cemetery, or of any lots or plots therein, to an amount not less than two hundred dollars, may be deposited with the state treasurer, who shall receive and receipt for it in the name of the […]
Section 21 – Public Cemeteries; Investment of Funds; Interest
Section 21. The state treasurer shall invest such money in the name of the commonwealth, in bonds or other obligations of the commonwealth or in securities in which he is authorized to invest money in behalf of the commonwealth; and, on the first days of February and August in each year, he shall pay over […]
Section 22 – Town Board of Cemetery Commissioners; Election of Members
Section 22. A town which accepts this and the four following sections or has accepted corresponding provisions of earlier laws may, at any town meeting, elect by ballot a board of cemetery commissioners consisting of three persons. If such board is first chosen at a meeting other than an annual town meeting, one member shall […]
Section 23 – Board of Cemetery Commissioners; Powers and Duties
Section 23. Said board shall have the sole care, superintendence and management of all public burial grounds in its town, may lay out any existing public burial grounds in its town or any land purchased and set apart by said town for such cemeteries, in lots or other suitable subdivisions, with proper paths and avenues, […]
Section 24 – Board of Cemetery Commissioners; Conveyance of Burial Lots; Record; Fee
Section 24. Said board may, by deed made and executed in such manner and form as it may prescribe, convey to any person the sole and exclusive right of burial in any lot in such cemeteries and of erecting tombs, cenotaphs and other monuments or structures thereon upon such terms and conditions as its regulations […]
Section 25 – Board of Cemetery Commissioners; Gifts or Bequests for Cemeteries; Investment of Funds; Disposition of Proceeds of Sales of Lots or Burial Rights
Section 25. A town in which cemetery commissioners are chosen may receive gifts or bequests for maintaining cemeteries or cemetery lots, which shall be paid into the town treasury and, with the accounts thereof, shall be kept separate from the other money and accounts of said town. The town treasurer shall invest all such funds […]