Sec. 712.009. LIMITATIONS ON BURIALS; DAMAGES

(a) The Finance Commission of Texas shall adopt rules to administer and enforce this section.

(b) An individual, corporation, partnership, firm, trust, or association that operates or owns a perpetual care cemetery may not inter the remains of an individual who may have caused the death of another person if:

(1) the victim is interred in that cemetery; and

(2) the person having the right to control the disposition of the victim's remains under Section 711.002(a) gives written notice to the cemetery requesting that the individual not be interred in that cemetery if:

(A) the individual was convicted under Section 19.02, 19.03, 19.05, or 49.08, Penal Code, for causing the death of the victim, or convicted under a similar statute of another state; or

(B) the individual was identified as causing the death of the victim, in violation of a provision described by Paragraph (A), by the medical examiner or law enforcement agency having jurisdiction over the offense, and the individual dies before being convicted of the offense.

(c) An individual, corporation, partnership, firm, trust, or association that violates Subsection (b) is liable to the person having the right to control the disposition of the victim's remains under Section 711.002(a) for:

(1) any actual damages incurred;

(2) punitive damages not to exceed $10,000; and

(3) reasonable attorney's fees and court costs incurred in an effort to enforce compliance with Subsection (b).

(d) Damages under Subsection (c) may not be assessed if the individual, corporation, partnership, firm, trust, or association that operates the cemetery proves by a preponderance of the evidence that:

(1) the cemetery is the only cemetery serving the municipality or county in which the victim and individual causing the victim's death lived; and

(2) the bodies of the victim and individual causing the victim's death were placed as far apart as possible in, or in different parts of, the cemetery.

(e) An individual, corporation, partnership, firm, trust, or association operating or owning a perpetual care cemetery and barred from interring remains of an individual under this section may not be held liable for damages by a person having the right to control the disposition of the individual's remains under Section 711.002(a), including damages for failure to provide for interment under a contract executed before the delivery of the written notice under Subsection (b)(2).

(f) A notice under Subsection (b)(2) expires seven years after the date the notice is delivered. A new notice may be delivered on the expiration of each previous notice.

Added by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 699, Sec. 14, eff. Sept. 1, 2001.