General Laws of Massachusetts - Chapter 114 Cemeteries and Burials

• Massachusetts General Laws - Definitions - Chapter 114, Section 1
  For purposes of this chapter the following words shall, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, have the following meanings:- “Burial right”, the right to burial...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Organization of cemetery corporations - Chapter 114, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Liability of directors, officers or trustees - Chapter 114, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Powers and duties of cemetery corporations - Chapter 114, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Cemetery and crematory corporations; disclosure; penalty - Chapter 114, Section 2A
  A cemetery corporation organized under this chapter or created by special act or charter shall disclose to its clients whether an owner, director or trustee...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Records of conveyances of burial lots - Chapter 114, Section 3
  Every cemetery corporation created by special charter or organized under general laws shall regularly keep books in which it shall enter all conveyances of burial...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Cemetery ownership of unclaimed graves; reuse of occupied graves - Chapter 114, Section 3A
  No cemetery corporation created by special charter or organized under the provisions of section one shall take over ownership of an unoccupied grave unless a...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Certified copies of recorded deeds and instruments; evidence - Chapter 114, Section 4
  The secretary or clerk of such corporation may give certified copies of all deeds and instruments so recorded, which may be used in evidence in...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Trust funds - Chapter 114, Section 5
  Such corporation may hold funds in trust and apply the income thereof to the improvement or embellishment of the cemetery or to the care, preservation...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Burials; designated funeral director - Chapter 114, Section 5A
  No such cemetery corporation shall deny the right to perform burials and the functions incidental thereto to the funeral director designated by the representative of...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Notification of certain options for burial services; penalty - Chapter 114, Section 5B
  Each such cemetery corporation shall notify, or cause the funeral director designated by the representatives of the deceased to notify, the family of the deceased...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Fiduciary duty owed to contributors to trust fund by corporation - Chapter 114, Section 5C
  The corporation and its officers shall owe a fiduciary duty to a contributor to the trust fund, his heirs and legal representatives to hold and...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Cremation - Chapter 114, Section 6
  Such corporation may cremate bodies of the dead, and may provide necessary buildings and appliances therefor and for the disposition of the ashes of the...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Formation and organization of crematory corporations - Chapter 114, Section 7
  Five or more persons may form a corporation, not for profit, for the purpose of providing the necessary appliances for the disposal by cremation of...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Crematory corporations; acquisition and holding of land in fee - Chapter 114, Section 8
  Such corporation may acquire and hold in fee, to an amount not exceeding fifty thousand dollars, land necessary and appropriate for its purposes and situated...
• Massachusetts General Laws - By-laws and regulations of cemeteries and crematory corporations; conduct of business; violations - Chapter 114, Section 9
  Cemetery and crematory corporations may, subject to the approval of said department, make by-laws and regulations consistent with law for the reception and cremation of...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Town burial places - Chapter 114, Section 10
  Each town shall provide one or more suitable places for the interment of persons dying within its limits.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Municipality ownership of unclaimed graves; reuse of occupied graves - Chapter 114, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Taking of land for burial purposes; application to county commissioners - Chapter 114, 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,...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Taking of land for burial places; hearing notice - Chapter 114, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Adjudication by commissioners; taking - Chapter 114, 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,...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Compensation of commissioners acting under petition to take land for burial place - Chapter 114, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Appropriation for enclosing and improving cemetery; sale or conveyance of burial rights; disposition of proceeds - Chapter 114, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Appropriation for and care of cemeteries - Chapter 114, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Preservation of ancient burial places - Chapter 114, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Care of neglected burial places within limits of town - Chapter 114, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Deposits for care and improvement of burial places or lots; records; investment of deposits - Chapter 114, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Depositing funds with state treasurer; copy of instrument; notice to town or city clerk - Chapter 114, 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,...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Investment of funds; interest - Chapter 114, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Town board of cemetery commissioners; election of members - Chapter 114, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Powers and duties - Chapter 114, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Conveyance of burial lots; record; fee - Chapter 114, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Gifts or bequests for cemeteries; investment of funds; disposition of proceeds of sales of lots or burial rights - Chapter 114, 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...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Limit of debts or liabilities; annual report - Chapter 114, Section 26
  Said board shall not incur debts or liabilities for purposes other than aforesaid nor to an amount exceeding the amount of the funds subject to...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Appointment of board of cemetery commissioners; powers and duties - Chapter 114, Section 27
  If a town so votes under section twenty-one of chapter forty-one the selectmen shall appoint a board of cemetery commissioners to consist of three members,...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Conveyance of lots or interest in lots in trust for preservation as memorial; rights of heirs of owner; control over lot or interest in lot - Chapter 114, Section 28
  The owner of any right, title or interest in or to a lot, tomb or monument in any cemetery owned or controlled by any company...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Indivisible character of lots; vesting; limitations and conditions; right of interment; designation of representation of lot; record - Chapter 114, Section 29
  Lots in cemeteries incorporated under section one, tombs in public cemeteries in cities and lots and tombs in public cemeteries in towns, shall be held...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Hearing as to representation of lot or tomb - Chapter 114, Section 30
  Before entering of record the name of any person to represent such lot or tomb, the board of cemetery commissioners, if any, or the board...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Descent of family lot to heirs - Chapter 114, Section 31
  If in a will no express disposition or other mention is made of a cemetery lot owned by the testator at his decease, and wherein...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Right of person to interment; release - Chapter 114, Section 32
  A person shall be entitled to a right of interment for his own body in any burial lot or tomb of which his spouse was...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Right of husband to interment - Chapter 114, Section 33
  A husband shall have the same rights in the tomb or burial lot of his wife as a wife has in that of her husband.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Use of land for burial; new cemeteries or extensions; approval of board of health; description of land - Chapter 114, Section 34
  Except in the case of the erection or use of a tomb on private land for the exclusive use of the family of the owner,...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Lands to be used for burial; approval - Chapter 114, Section 35
  No land other than that so used and appropriated on April tenth, nineteen hundred and eight, shall be used for the purpose of burial if...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Appeal from order of board of health; hearing - Chapter 114, Section 36
  Any person, including those persons in control of any public land, or the officers of any municipality, aggrieved by the action of a board of...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Regulations by local boards of health; notice - Chapter 114, Section 37
  Boards of health may make regulations concerning burial grounds and interments within their towns; may impose penalties not exceeding one hundred dollars for a breach...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Closing of tombs, burial ground or cemetery; hearing; notice - Chapter 114, Section 38
  Before a tomb, burial ground or cemetery is closed by order of the board of health for more than one month, all persons interested shall...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Appeal from order of board - Chapter 114, Section 39
  The owner of a tomb aggrieved by an order of the board of health closing a tomb, burial ground or cemetery may, within six months...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Jury trial; rescission of order; costs and double costs - Chapter 114, Section 40
  Appeals shall be tried before a jury, and if the jury find that the tomb, burial ground or cemetery so closed was not a nuisance...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Laying out or constructing public ways in, upon or through burial places; authority - Chapter 114, Section 41
  A public way shall not be laid out or constructed in, upon or through an enclosure used or appropriated for a burial place except by...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Passage through cemeteries - Chapter 114, Section 42
  Whoever uses as a means of passage from one point to another, not being thereupon at the time for any other purpose, the premises of...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Visitation hours - Chapter 114, Section 42A
  No cemetery exempted from taxation under the provisions of section five of chapter fifty-nine shall be closed for visitations between the hours of eight o’clock...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Commercial use of cemeteries; consent; penalties - Chapter 114, Section 42B
  No person shall use the premises of a cemetery or burial place for the purpose of taking photographs or making a motion picture for commercial...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Buildings upon burial places - Chapter 114, Section 43
  No building shall be erected upon any burial place belonging to a city, except by special authority from the general court, or with the previous...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Ownership, maintenance and operation of cemeteries; private profit - Chapter 114, Section 43A
  No cemetery established on or after July first, nineteen hundred and thirty-six, shall be owned, maintained or operated except by a municipality or other political...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Sale of cemetery lots and plots for speculative purposes - Chapter 114, Section 43B
  The sale of cemetery lots and plots, or the sale of crypts in a community mausoleum or niches in a columbarium, for speculative purposes, or...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Disposition of proceeds of sales; liquidation of indebtedness - Chapter 114, Section 43C
  The proceeds of the sales of lots and plots in a cemetery shall, except as hereinafter provided, be applied solely to the improvement and maintenance...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Location of community mausoleums; exceptions - Chapter 114, Section 43D
  Every community mausoleum, other than a structure containing crypts erected or controlled by a church or a religious society and used only as a repository...
• Massachusetts General Laws - New community mausoleums; plans and specifications; approval; construction - Chapter 114, Section 43E
  No community mausoleum, the crypts of which are available to the public for burial purposes, shall be erected without the consent and approval of the...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Community mausoleums; construction; supervision - Chapter 114, Section 43F
  The department of environmental protection shall have supervisory control over the erection of any such community mausoleum and shall enforce compliance with the approved plans...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Use of community mausoleum prior to completion; care and improvement fund - Chapter 114, Section 43G
  No community mausoleum, crypt or structure erected as aforesaid shall be used for the purpose of depositing therein the remains of any dead body until...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Sale of community mausoleum prior to completion - Chapter 114, Section 43H
  No crypt in a community mausoleum shall be sold or offered for sale before said structure, or a component section thereof, is fully completed.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Removal of bodies constituting menace to public health - Chapter 114, Section 43I
  Whenever any mausoleum, vault, crypt or other structure containing one or more dead human bodies shall, in the opinion of the department of public health,...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Permanent care and improvement fund for community mausoleums - Chapter 114, Section 43J
  Every cemetery association or other agency establishing, maintaining and operating a community mausoleum on or after July first, nineteen hundred and thirty-six, shall create and...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Custodian of fund; administration and investment - Chapter 114, Section 43K
  The treasurer of the cemetery in which such community mausoleum is situated shall be the custodian of the permanent care and improvement fund established therefor...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Abating or enjoining nuisance - Chapter 114, Section 43L
  Any cemetery, community mausoleum or columbarium established, maintained or operated in violation of or contrary to any provision of this chapter shall be a nuisance...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Permanent disposition of dead bodies or remains - Chapter 114, Section 43M
  Except as otherwise provided by law, or in case of a dead body being rightfully carried through or removed from the commonwealth for the purpose...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Penalties - Chapter 114, Section 43N
  Whoever fails to comply with or violates any provision of this chapter in respect to the establishment, maintenance or operation of a cemetery, community mausoleum,...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Sale of monuments for cemetery lots by cemetery corporations - Chapter 114, Section 43O
  The following corporations owning or operating cemeteries shall not sell or engage in the business of selling monuments for cemetery lots:— Municipal corporations, cemetery corporations...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Cremation of bodies - Chapter 114, Section 44
  The body of a deceased person shall not be cremated within 48 hours after his decease unless he died of a contagious or infectious disease,...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Receptacles for cremated remains; caskets - Chapter 114, Section 44A
  The body of a deceased person to be cremated shall be contained in a suitable receptacle; provided, however, that a casket shall not be used...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Burial permits; permits for removal of bodies; certificates of death; deceased veterans - Chapter 114, Section 45
  Except as provided in sections forty-four and forty-six, no undertaker or other person shall bury or otherwise dispose of a human body in a town,...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Funeral director’s name used in connection with death certificate or burial permit - Chapter 114, Section 45A
  No funeral director, whether doing business as an individual, partnership or corporation, shall permit his name to be used in connection with any death certificate...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Permit for burial of bodies brought into commonwealth; certificate; recording - Chapter 114, Section 46
  Whenever a dead body is brought into the commonwealth for burial, accompanied by a removal permit issued under the laws of the state from which...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Veterans; burial; affidavit; veteran graves officer - Chapter 114, Section 46A
  No permit for the burial or other disposition of the body of a deceased veteran, known to be such, as the term veteran is defined...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Certificates for burial, removal or cremation; indorsement of coupon accompanying permit; record - Chapter 114, Section 47
  No person having the care of a cemetery, burial ground or crematory shall permit the burial, removal or cremation of a human body until the...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Cremation; certificates for burial - Chapter 114, Section 48
  An undertaker shall not bury the ashes of a human body until he has received from the person having the charge of the crematory a...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Licensing of funeral directors; revocation or suspension; hearing; fees; permits - Chapter 114, Section 49
  The board of health of each town shall annually, on or before May first, license persons to act as funeral directors therein upon such terms...
• Massachusetts General Laws - Penalty - Chapter 114, Section 50
  Violations of any of the provisions of sections forty-four to forty-eight, inclusive, shall be punished by a fine of not more than fifty dollars.
• Massachusetts General Laws - Embalming fluid - Chapter 114, Section 51
  No person shall sell, offer for sale, or supply others with any embalming fluid, or any substitute therefor, which contains more than five milligrams of...

Last modified: September 11, 2015