SECTIONS 8650-8653 - California Statutes

HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE

SECTION 8650-8653

8650. (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. 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.

8650.5. 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. 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. 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. 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.