PARK AND CEM ETER V. 
47 
open any tomb, vault, grave or mausoleum, 
and to clandestinely remove a body. 
CARING FOR NEGLECTED BURIAL 
GROUNDS 
Laws 1911, p. nil, provides “that the 
overseers of the poor of any township of 
the second class * * * which con- 
stitutes a separate poor district, are hereby 
authorized and empowered, on the petition 
of ten per centum of all the taxable in- 
habitants within such township, to fence, 
to keep in repair, and to clear of all weeds, 
briers, and all other growth not used for 
ornam.ental purposes, any abandoned or 
neglected cemetery or burial ground, which 
* * * shall have been abandoned and ne- 
glected for a period of five years * * * 
and that is open for interment to the gen- 
eral public without charge or fee, and 
when such cemetery or burial ground is not 
maintained for profit or gain. * * * 
Provided, That this act shall not apply to 
any cemetery or burial ground controlled 
or under the supervision of any denomina- 
tional church or sectarian religious so- 
ciety.” 
Laws 1909, pp. 294, relating to the vaca- 
tion of cemeteries, would seem to have 
been repealed by the 1913 law abstracted 
at the beginning of this article, and, there- 
fore, to be inoperative now. 
PERPETUAL CARE PROVISIONS 
Laws 1909, p. 41, forbids issuance of 
charters to “any burial or cemetery com- 
pany, * * * unless * * * [the charter] 
* * * shall set forth a provision, clearly 
and fully, that a sum equal tc at least one- 
tenth of the gross amount of the funds 
arising from the sale of lots * * * shall 
be set apart for the perpetual care and 
preservation of the grounds, and the re- 
pair and renewal of the buildings and 
property of said burial or cemetery com- 
pany ; which fund, so set apart by the di- 
rectors or managers * * shall be in- 
vested by them * « * income 
* * * shall be applied by them to the 
purposes aforesaid. The directors or man- 
agers, in one year after the incorporation 
of any cemetery or burial ground, and an- 
nually thereafter, file with the clerk of the 
courts of the county * * * ^ bond with 
sufficient sureties, to be approved by the 
court of quarter sessions, foi' the faithful 
performance of the trust herein imposed, 
for perpetual care and preservation of 
grounds and property ; such bond to be in 
the full amount of the trust investment at 
the time said bond is approved.” 
TRANSFER OF BOROUGH CEMETERIES 
Laws 1909, p. 155 : “When the title, con- 
trol and management of any burial ground 
* * * is vested * * * in a borough, it 
shall be lawful for the council of such 
borough, on petition of ten lot owners in 
said burial ground, to transfer said burial 
ground, and the control and management 
thereof, to an incorporated cemetery com- 
pany.” On acceptance of the ordinance by 
the company, the title, management and 
control shall thereupon vest in the com- 
pany. 
UNLAWFUL INTERMENTS AND RE- 
MOVALS 
Laws 1905, p. 341 : “If any undertaker, 
sexton, or other person acting as under- 
taker, shall inter, remove, or otherwise dis- 
pose of, the body of any deceased person, 
without having a burial or removal per- 
mit * * * he shall be deemed guilty of 
a misdemeanor.” Fine, not less than $25 
nor more than $100. 
MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS 
The following references are to volume 1, 
Pepper & Lewis’s Digest of Pennsylvania 
laws, covering the years 1700-1907. 
Column 903 : Cemetery companies not 
organized for profit are empowered to re- 
ceive bequests or donations of property to 
be held in trust for the embellishment of 
the cemetery or for repair of monuments, 
fences, planting of flowers, or other im- 
provements. 
The law at columns 903-900 relates to va- 
cation of cemeteries, and is probably ren- 
dered wholly inoperative by the later laws 
above mentioned. 
Col. 907 : Lots in cemeteries, owned by 
companies not organized for profit, may be 
transferred upon the corporation's books, 
“and such transfer shall be as good and 
valid in law as if the deeds were duly 
acknowledged and recorded in the office 
for recording deeds.” 
Col. 907 ; "No disposition of property 
hereafter made for the maintenance or 
care of any cemetery * * * or grave 
therein, or monuments or other erections 
on or about the same, shall fail by reason 
of * * * having been made in per- 
petuity.” 
Col. 908 : Authorizes cemetery companies 
generally to accept gifts, bequests, etc., in 
trust for repair, preservation and embel- 
lishment of graves. 
Col. 908 : Lots held or used for per- 
petual burial purposes are exempt from 
taxation. 
Col. 909 : Bequests and devises in trust 
for the care and preservation of burial 
lots are exempted from payment of col- 
lateral inheritance tax. 
Col. 909: Makes it an offense to injure 
or destroy cemetery property. Penalty, im- 
prisonment for not more than one year, or 
fine of not more than $100, or both. 
Col. 909 : Another law prescribing same 
penalty for malicious injury to flowers, 
trees, etc., in cemeteries. 
Col. 910 : Cemetery superintendents, 
watchmen, gardeners and other employes 
stationed on grounds may acquire all pow- 
ers of police officers within and adjacent 
to the cemetery grounds, by taking a con- 
stable’s oath before a mayor or justice of 
the peace in the township where the cem- 
etery is situated. 
Col. 9HI : Statute forbids opening of alle\ 
or highway through cemeteries, except in 
Philadelphia. 
Col. 911: Forbids establishment of burial 
grounds where drainage therefrom passes 
into a stream furnishing water supply for 
a city, within one mile of such city. 
Title to Burial Ground in 
Massachusetts 
In a suit recently reviewed by the Mas- 
sachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (Trefry 
vs. Younger, 114 Northeastern Reporter, 
1033), that tribunal decided the following- 
points of law : 
Where an owner of a tract of land laid 
out a burial lot on it for the use of his 
family, and sold numerous lots to other 
persons, in which interments were made 
and on which monuments were constructed, 
there was an implied dedication of the 
land to public use as a luirial ground, es- 
pecially where the owner executed a deed 
to the tract afterwards, containing the 
clause, “subject to the rights of owners of 
lots to whom conveyances have been made 
for burial purposes.” 
Land comprising a cemetery could be 
lawfully sold or mortgaged, subject to the 
rights of lot owners. 
A deed to land described as being “lo- 
cally kno-wn as Harbor View Cemetery” 
placed the purchaser on inquiry as to the 
existence of rights of lot holders. 
When land embracing burial lots is sold 
at judicial sale, the purchaser takes no 
greater rights against the lot holders than 
the former owner had, regardless of 
w'hether the deeds to the lots were re- 
corded or not. 
The owner of lots in a cemetery is en- 
titled to reasonable access thereto, as 
against the owner of any unsold portions 
of the entire tract, and may remove ma- 
terial therefrom, if reasonaljly necessar_v 
and proper for that purpose. 
Speaking in general terms of the right 
of lot owners, the court says : 
“The rights of owners in burial lots in 
cemeteries are well established: these 
rights ordinarily are in the nature of an 
easement ; they do not convey an absolute 
right of property, but give the right of 
burial so long as the place continues to be 
used as a burial ground. It is a limited 
use for purposes of interment which gives 
no title to the land. A grant of a lot in a 
cemetery is said to be analogous to a grant 
of a pew in a church. Sohier vs. Trinity 
Church, 109 Mass. 1 ; Feeley vs. Andrews, 
191 Mass. 313, 77 N. F. 7(1(1; Massachu- 
setts Baptist Missionar}^ Soc. vs. Bowdoin 
Sq. Baptist Soc., 212 Mass. 198, 98 N. E. 
1045, Ann. Cas. 1913C, 472: Garden Cem- 
etery Corp. vs. Baker, 218 Mass. 339, 105 
N. E. 1070, Ann. Cas. 191(!B, 75. A cer- 
tificate or deed to purchasers of lots in a 
cemetery conveys the privilege to make 
interments in the lots; it is not a grant of 
any interest in the soil, but is in the nature 
of an easement or irrevocable license so 
long as the place continues as a burying 
ground. Page vs. Symonds, 03 N. H, 17, 
50 Am. Rep. 481 : Windt vs. German Re- 
formed Church, 4 Sandf. Ch. (N. Y.) 471 : 
Dwenger vs. Geary, 113 Ind. 106, 14 N. E. 
903; Kincaid’s Appeal, 66 Pa. 411, 5 Am. 
Rep. 377 ; Catholic Cathedral vs. Manning, 
72 Md. 116, 19 Atl. 599.” 
