Bill Text: NY S07155 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced

---

Bill Title: Requires consent prior to the merger of cemetery corporations by the cemetery board.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Passed) 2020-12-23 - approval memo.60 [S07155 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-S07155-Introduced.html

---

                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          7155

                    IN SENATE

                                     January 9, 2020
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sen.  COMRIE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
          printed to be committed to the Committee on Corporations,  Authorities
          and Commissions

        AN  ACT  to  amend  the  not-for-profit  corporation law, in relation to
          requiring consent prior to the merger of cemetery corporations

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1. Paragraph (c) of section 1506 of the not-for-profit corpo-
     2  ration law, as amended by chapter 553 of the laws of 2019, is amended to
     3  read as follows:
     4    (c)  Cemeteries  in  Kings,  Queens,  Rockland,  Westchester,  Nassau,
     5  Suffolk, Putnam and Erie counties. A cemetery corporation shall not take
     6  by  deed, devise, merger or otherwise any land in the counties of Kings,
     7  Queens, Rockland, Westchester, Nassau, Suffolk, Putnam or Erie for ceme-
     8  tery purposes, or set apart any ground therefor in any of such counties,
     9  unless the consent of the board of supervisors or legislative body ther-
    10  eof, or of the city council of the city of New York, in respect to Kings
    11  or Queens county, be first obtained [except as provided in paragraph (n)
    12  of this section]. Such consent may be granted upon such  conditions  and
    13  under such regulations and restrictions as the public health and welfare
    14  may  require. Notice of application for such consent shall be published,
    15  once a week for six weeks, in the newspapers designated to  publish  the
    16  session  laws  and  in  such other newspapers published in the county as
    17  such board or body may direct, stating the  time  when  the  application
    18  will  be made, a brief description of the lands proposed to be acquired,
    19  their location and the area thereof. Any person interested  therein  may
    20  be  heard  on  such  presentation. If such consent is granted the corpo-
    21  ration may take and hold the lands designated therein. The consent shall
    22  not authorize any one corporation to take or hold more than two  hundred
    23  and  fifty  acres  of  land [except as provided in paragraph (n) of this
    24  section], except that such limitation shall not apply in the event of  a
    25  merger  of cemetery corporations.  Nothing contained in this subdivision
    26  shall prevent any religious corporation in existence on April fifteenth,
    27  eighteen hundred fifty-four, in any of said counties from using as here-
    28  tofore any burial ground then belonging to it within such  county.  Such
    29  board or body, from time to time, may make such regulation as to burials
    30  in any cemetery in the county as the public health may require.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD14727-01-0
        S. 7155                             2

     1    §  2.  Paragraph (e) of section 1506 of the not-for-profit corporation
     2  law is amended by adding a new subparagraph 3 to read as follows:
     3    (3)  Notwithstanding  the  provisions  of this section, and subject to
     4  section fifteen hundred six-d of  this  article,  nothing  herein  shall
     5  prohibit the merger of cemetery corporations, regardless of proximity or
     6  the  acreage  of  the  lands  held  by  such  cemetery corporations. Any
     7  purchase, abandonment, or donation of real property to a cemetery corpo-
     8  ration, or merger of cemetery corporations,  that  has  occurred  on  or
     9  before  January  first,  two  thousand twenty, including any such trans-
    10  action previously authorized or approved by the cemetery board shall  be
    11  deemed  to  be  duly ratified and shall not be subject to the additional
    12  provisions of this section or any further review by the cemetery board.
    13    § 3. Paragraph (h) of section 1506 of the  not-for-profit  corporation
    14  law,  as added by chapter 871 of the laws of 1977, is amended to read as
    15  follows:
    16    (h) Acquisition of property by condemnation.  If  the  certificate  of
    17  incorporation  or  by-laws  of a cemetery corporation do not exclude any
    18  person, on equal  terms  with  other  persons,  from  the  privilege  of
    19  purchasing  a  lot  or  of burial in its cemetery, such corporation may,
    20  from time to time, acquire by condemnation, exclusively for the purposes
    21  of a cemetery, not more than two hundred acres of land in the aggregate,
    22  forming one continuous tract, wholly or  partly  within  the  county  in
    23  which  its  certificate of incorporation is filed or recorded, except as
    24  in this section otherwise provided as to the counties of  Erie,  Nassau,
    25  Suffolk,  Putnam,  Kings,  Queens,  Rockland and Westchester. A cemetery
    26  corporation may acquire by condemnation, exclusively for the purposes of
    27  a cemetery, any real property  or  any  interest  therein  necessary  to
    28  supply water for the uses of such cemetery, and the right to lay, relay,
    29  repair  and  maintain  conduits  and  water  pipes  with connections and
    30  fixtures, in, through or over the lands  of  others  and  the  right  to
    31  intercept  and  divert  the  flow  of  waters from the lands of riparian
    32  owners, and from persons owning or interested in any waters. But no such
    33  cemetery corporation shall have power to take or use water from  any  of
    34  the  canals  of  this  state, or any canal reservoirs as feeders, or any
    35  streams which have been taken by the state for the purpose of  supplying
    36  the  canals  with water.   A cemetery corporation may acquire, otherwise
    37  than by condemnation, real property [as aforesaid] as outlined  in  this
    38  article for burial purposes and additional real property[, not exceeding
    39  in  value two hundred thousand dollars,] for the purposes of the conven-
    40  ient transactions of its business[, no portion of which  shall  be  used
    41  for the purposes of a cemetery].
    42    §  4.  The  not-for-profit  corporation law is amended by adding a new
    43  section 1506-d to read as follows:
    44  § 1506-d. Cemetery merger authorization.
    45    (a) Upon application and approval by the cemetery board and in compli-
    46  ance with this article and article nine  of  this  chapter,  a  cemetery
    47  corporation  organized pursuant to this chapter or by general or special
    48  law or by special act of the legislature may  merge  with  one  or  more
    49  other  cemetery  corporations  located within a fifty mile radius of the
    50  principal place of  business  of  the  surviving  cemetery  corporation.
    51  Nothing  in  this  section shall require, as a condition of any cemetery
    52  merger, that the cemetery property involved in such transaction be adja-
    53  cent or contiguous property or be limited to a certain maximum number of
    54  total acres so long as the merging cemetery corporations demonstrate  to
    55  the  cemetery  board that the resulting merged cemetery corporation will
        S. 7155                             3

     1  have sufficient assets to maintain its cemetery  properties  and  manage
     2  its operations.
     3    (b) Upon application and approval by the cemetery board and in compli-
     4  ance  with  this  article  and  article nine of this chapter, a cemetery
     5  corporation organized pursuant to this chapter or by general or  special
     6  law  or  by special act of the legislature, which had, at the end of the
     7  preceding financial reporting year, ten million dollars or more in total
     8  financial assets, including all  general  funds,  permanent  maintenance
     9  funds, perpetual care funds, special trust funds and other restricted or
    10  unrestricted  funds  under  the  control  of  the  cemetery corporation,
    11  regardless of the form in which they are held, may  merge  with  one  or
    12  more cemetery corporations located greater than a fifty mile radius from
    13  the principal place of business of the surviving cemetery corporation to
    14  create  a  single entity with multiple cemetery locations, regardless of
    15  the geographic distance between  its  cemetery  locations  or  from  the
    16  surviving cemetery corporation's principal place of business, so long as
    17  the  surviving  cemetery corporation provides the following to the ceme-
    18  tery board: (1) an outline of financial management  controls  that  have
    19  been  or will be implemented to accommodate multiple cemeteries operated
    20  at locations geographically distant from the surviving cemetery; (2)  an
    21  outline of the total financial assets of each cemetery corporation to be
    22  merged  demonstrating  that  the surviving cemetery will have sufficient
    23  financial resources to operate the merged  cemeteries;  (3)  information
    24  regarding  the  location  of  all  corporate and cemetery records of the
    25  merged cemeteries, as well as  procedures  for  remote  access  to  such
    26  records  by  all  lot  owners  of  the merged cemeteries; (4) a plan for
    27  providing remote maintenance and operations services to the merged ceme-
    28  teries, including those that are  geographically  distant;  (5)  contact
    29  information, to be posted at the entrance to each merged cemetery and on
    30  any  website  maintained  by the surviving cemetery, listing the contact
    31  information for the surviving cemetery; (6)  procedures  for  conducting
    32  lot  owners'  meetings  for remote merged cemeteries; and (7) procedures
    33  for providing notice to lot owners  of  all  merged  cemeteries  of  the
    34  place,  date  and  hour of the annual meeting of the surviving cemetery,
    35  which notice shall be published in a newspaper located in each county in
    36  which any merged cemetery is physically located,  shall  be  prominently
    37  posted on the homepage of any web site maintained by the surviving ceme-
    38  tery,  and  shall otherwise comply with section six hundred five of this
    39  chapter.
    40    (c) Pursuant to section fifteen hundred five-a  of  this  article  the
    41  surviving  cemetery  corporation shall, if necessary, within ninety days
    42  after the consummation of any  merger  under  this  section,  amend  its
    43  certificate  of  incorporation  to  list each city, village or town, and
    44  county where any part of the surviving cemetery is or is proposed to  be
    45  situated,  and shall file such amended certificate of incorporation with
    46  the office of the county clerk of each applicable county.
    47    (d) Nothing in this section shall prohibit a cemetery corporation from
    48  merging with a crematory operation, regardless of the  location  of  the
    49  operation  of  such cemetery corporation.  Any purchase, abandonment, or
    50  donation of real property to a cemetery corporation, or merger of  ceme-
    51  tery  corporations,  that  has  occurred on or before January first, two
    52  thousand twenty, including any such transaction previously authorized or
    53  approved by the cemetery board shall be deemed to be duly  ratified  and
    54  shall  not  be  subject  to the additional provisions of section fifteen
    55  hundred six of this article or any further review by the cemetery board.
    56    § 5. This act shall take effect immediately.