CHAPTER 264

An Act to empower the owners of certain cemeteries to acquire abandoned
cemetery lots and to prescribe the procedure therein by adding to
Chapter $ of Title 57 of the Code of Virginia an Article 5, containing
sections numbered 57-39.2, 57-89.8, 57-89.4, 57-39.5, 57-89.6 and

57-39.7.
[H 535]

Approved March 14, 1962

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That the Code of Virginia be amended by adding in Chapter 3 of Title
57 an Article 5, containing sections numbered 57-39.2, 57-39.3, 57-39.4,
57-39.5, 57-39.6 and 57-39.7, as follows:

§ 57-39.2. The ownership of or right or interest in any unoccupied
cemetery lot in any cemetery located in any city having a population in
excess of 180,000 but not exceeding 300,000, which cemetery is under the
ownership and charge of such city, or any corporation, association or
trustees, shall, upon abandonment, revert to such city, corporation, asso-
ciation or trustees having ownership and charge of the cemetery contain-
ing any such lot. The continued failure to maintain or care for an unoccu-
pied cemetery lot in any cemetery for a period of at least thirty years,
whether such period shall have elapsed prior to the effective date hereof or
subsequent thereto, shall create and establish a rebuttable presumption
that the same has been abandoned.
§ 57-39.8. Any city, corporation, association or trustees having own-
ership and charge of a cemetery which is located in a city, the population
of which is set forth in the preceding section, may file a verified bill in
equity in the circuit, corporation or city court having equity jurisdiction
within whose jurisdiction the cemetery is situated, setting forth its or
their ownership of the cemetery and facts relating to the continued failure
by the owner of an unoccupied cemetery lot in such cemetery to maintain
and care for the same for at least thirty consecutive years immediately
preceding thereto, and pray for an order adjudging any such lot to be
abandoned. Upon the filing of such bill, the court upon proper motion shall
set a date for a hearing thereon.

§ 57-39.4. Not less than twenty days before the date fixed for the
hearing, a notice declaring that the unoccupied cemetery lot has been pre-
sumed to be abandoned, and setting forth the date fixed for the hearing,
shall be served personally upon the recorded owner thereof or his heirs,
if the recorded owner is known by the cemetery to be dead and upon such
heirs whose names and addresses have been filed with the cemetery, or
shall be served by mailing the notice by registered mail to the last known
address of the recorded owner thereof or his heirs, if the recorded owner
is known by the cemetery to be dead and to such heirs whose names and
addresses have been filed with the cemetery, and by publishing the notice
once each week for four consecutive weeks in a newspaper having general
circulation in the city in which the cemetery is located. Thereupon, it
shall be the duty of such recorded owner or his heirs, as the case may be,
to appear and make answer to the allegations of said bill and any such
appearance and answer shall rebut the presumption of abandonment.

§ 57-39.5. At the hearing authorized by the preceding section, the
proofs of the parties shall be presented and if the court shall determine
therefrom, or upon the verified bill in event of the failure of the recorded
owner or his heirs, as the case may be, to appear and answer, that the
unoccupied cemetery lot set forth in the bill has been abandoned, the court
shall enter a decree adjudging the same to be abandoned, and shall fur-
ther provide that the city, corporation, association or trustees having own-
ership and charge of the cemetery containing any such lot shall have the
right to sell the same, conveying good title thereto, and to use the proceeds
derived therefrom in the manner and for the purposes hereinafter
provided.

§ 57-39.6. At any time after entry of the decree adjudicating any
unoccupied cemetery lot to be abandoned, the city, corporation, association
or trustees having ownership and charge of the cemetery containing any
such lot may sell the same in accordance with the rules and regulations
of the cemetery then in force governing generally the sale of cemetery
lots. Any proceeds derived therefrom shall first be used to defray the
costs and expenses incurred in any abandonment proceedings, and the
balance thereof shall, unless otherwise directed by the court, be placed
in a special fund, known as the ‘Perpetual Care Fund” of the cemetery,
to be used by the cemetery solely for the future maintenance, care and
upkeep of the cemetery.

§ 57-39.7. §§ 57-39.2 through 57-39.6 shall be construed to apply to
and authorize a determination of abandonment of any unoccupied part of
a cemetery lot; provided, however, in any proceeding to determine the
abandonment of an unoccupied part of a cemetery lot, the court shall in
the exercise of its equity jurisdiction, also determine what part, if any,
shall be considered as having been abandoned; but said sections shall not
be construed to apply to and authorize a determination of abandonment
of the following: (1) that part of a cemetery lot wherein there has been
an interment; (2) any cemetery lot or part thereof to which fee simple title
has been conveyed by a cemetery; or (3) any cemetery lot or part thereof
for which perpetual care has been provided by contract with the city,
corporation, association or trustees having ownership and charge of the
cemetery containing any such lot or part thereof.