SECTIONS 9600-9615 - California Statutes

BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONS CODE

SECTION 9600-9615

9600. This chapter of the Business and Professions Code constitutes
the chapter on cemetery regulation. It may be cited as the "Cemetery
Act."

9601. The definitions in this article govern the meaning of terms
used in the act except as otherwise provided expressly or by
necessary implication.

9602. "Act" means Cemetery Act.

9603. The following terms as used in this chapter shall have the
meanings expressed in this section:
(a) "Department" means the Department of Consumer Affairs.
(b) "Director" means the Director of Consumer Affairs.
(c) "Bureau" means the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau.

9604. A cemetery broker is a person who, other than in reference to
an occasional sale, sells or offers for sale, buys, or offers to
buy, lists, leases or offers to lease, or solicits, or negotiates the
purchase or sale, lease or exchange of cemetery property or
interment services, or interest therein, for his or her own account
or for another.

9605. A cemetery salesperson is a natural person who, other than in
reference to an occasional sale, is employed by a cemetery broker to
sell, or offer for sale, list or offer to list, or to buy, or to
offer to buy, or to lease, or offer to lease, or to solicit, or to
negotiate the purchase or sale or lease or exchange of cemetery
property or interment services, or any interest therein, for his or
her own account or for another.

9605.1. (a) A cemetery manager is a person engaged in or
conducting, or holding himself or herself out as engaged in those
activities involved in, or incidental to, the maintaining, operating,
or improving a cemetery licensed under this chapter, the interring
of human remains, and the care, preservation, and embellishment of
cemetery property.
(b) For persons licensed pursuant to Section 9676, a cemetery
manager is a person engaged in or conducting, or holding himself or
herself out as engaged in those activities involved in, or incidental
to, the following:
(1) The maintaining, operating, or improving of a cemetery
licensed under this chapter.
(2) The interment of human remains.
(3) The care, preservation, and embellishment of cemetery
property.
(4) Activities described in Section 9677.

9605.2. A crematory manager is a person engaged in or conducting,
or holding himself or herself out as engaged in those activities
involved in, or incidental to, the maintaining, or operating a
crematory licensed under this chapter, and the cremation of human
remains.

9606. The definitions in Chapter 1 of Part 1 of Division 7 of the
Health and Safety Code are applicable to this act.

9607. "Cemetery licensee" means any cemetery broker, cemetery
salesperson, or cemetery manager.

9607.5. "Crematory licensee" shall mean a corporation, partnership,
or natural person licensed pursuant to Article 8 (commencing with
Section 9780) and shall mean a cemetery licensee for purposes of
disciplinary action under Article 6 (commencing with Section 9725).

9607.6. A cremated remains disposer is a person who, for his or her
own account or for another, disposes of, or offers to dispose of,
cremated human remains by scattering over or on land or sea.

9608. "Endowment care" or "endowed care" shall include both general
and special care funds.

9608.5. An "occasional sale" is a sale of cemetery property not
acquired or held for purposes of resale or speculation, provided such
sale is not one of a series of sales sufficient in number, scope and
character to constitute engaging in the business of selling or
reselling or holding for speculation cemetery property.

9608.6. "Public cemetery" means a cemetery owned and operated by a
city, county, city and county, or public cemetery district.

9609. This act does not apply to any of the following:
(a) A religious corporation, church, religious society or
denomination, a corporation sole administering temporalities of any
church or religious society or denomination, or any cemetery
organized, controlled, and operated by any of them.
(b) A public cemetery.
(c) Any private or fraternal burial park not exceeding 10 acres in
area, established prior to September 19, 1939; however, (1) such
cemeteries shall be subject to the cemetery brokerage provisions of
this act, and (2) any such cemetery shall be subject to all of the
provisions of this act if it collects a care, maintenance or
embellishment deposit or sets up a trust for burial purposes pursuant
to Section 8775 of the Health and Safety Code, including funeral
services such as mortuary, cremation or other commodities or services
furnished at the time of and in connection with such funeral or
cremation.

9611. The bureau shall disclose on its Web site information about
each cemetery subject to the jurisdiction of the bureau. In addition
to the information required by Section 27, the bureau shall disclose
the name of the owner of each cemetery, the name of the cemetery, the
business address of the cemetery owner, and the physical address of
the cemetery.

9612. Notwithstanding Section 8115 of the Health and Safety Code,
in order to protect consumers, the bureau shall adopt regulations
that establish minimum standards of maintenance for endowment care
cemeteries under the jurisdiction of the bureau. The regulations
shall consider differences in cemetery size, location, topography,
and type of interments. The regulations shall also consider the
extent to which funds are available from the cemetery's endowment
care funds to perform maintenance.
The standards established pursuant to this section shall not
supersede any standards of a higher level of care established
pursuant to Section 8115 of the Health and Safety Code.

9613. (a) The bureau shall survey each of its licensees to obtain
information to determine if the endowment care fund levels of the
licensee's cemetery are sufficient to cover the cost of future
operation. The bureau shall also review the levels of endowment care
funds that have previously been reported pursuant to this chapter by
licensed cemeteries.
(b) The bureau shall report its findings and recommendations to
the Legislature by January 1, 2008.

9615. (a) (1) Any person who holds or has held, or was named on,
any license or registration under the jurisdiction of the bureau that
has been, within the immediately preceding 10 years, revoked,
suspended, placed on probation, or surrendered under a stipulated
decision, and who is employed by, or who seeks employment with, a
licensed cemetery, a licensed crematory, or a licensed cemetery
broker in any capacity, shall inform the licensed cemetery manager,
the licensed crematory manager, or the licensed cemetery broker of
that revocation, suspension, probation, or surrender.
(2) A person subject to this subdivision shall inform the licensed
cemetery manager, the licensed crematory manager, or the licensed
cemetery broker upon application for employment by completing a form
that shall be made available by the bureau.
(b) The cemetery manager, crematory manager, or cemetery broker
who is informed pursuant to subdivision (a) shall notify the bureau
by submitting the form within 30 days of being so informed. Failure
of the cemetery manager, crematory manager, or cemetery broker to
notify the bureau shall be a cause for a warning. A cemetery manager,
crematory manager, or cemetery broker shall not be subject to a
warning if his or her failure to notify the bureau is due to a false
statement made by an employee.
(c) Any person required to notify the cemetery manager, crematory
manager, or cemetery broker under subdivision (a) who fails to do so
or who makes a false statement on the required form shall be subject
to disciplinary action if that person is a licensee of the bureau, or
that failure or false statement shall be cause for denial of a
license under Section 480.
(d) For purposes of subdivision (a), the term "named on" applies
to a person who was an owner, partner, or corporate officer of an
entity that was licensed or registered under the act at the time that
entity's license or registration under the act was revoked,
suspended, placed on probation, or surrendered.