§ 24-365 Cemetery and burial grounds.
Whenever for the purposes of this subchapter it shall be necessary to use any land or premises, or any portion thereof, now occupied by graves, burial places, cemeteries or other places of interment of human remains, such graves, burial places, cemeteries or other places of interment of human remains and the human remains located therein, shall be removed and disposed of in the following manner:
1. The city having acquired title to the land where burial places are situated shall cause a notice to be published once in each week for four successive weeks in two newspapers published in the county where such burial place or places are situated, which such notice shall be substantially as follows: "Please take notice that the undersigned hereby intends to make application relating to the removal of all the remains, all the monuments and all other distinguishing marks from the cemetery or burial place located in the town of __________________ county of ____________ known as ____________ not less than sixty days after (the last publication date of this notice) for an order pursuant to subchapter four of chapter three of title twenty-four of the administrative code of the city of New York; Please take further notice that any and all person or persons legally entitled to direct as to the disposition of the above may remove the same to any other cemetery or burial place within the same or an adjoining county within sixty days after (the last publication date of this notice) if they so elect upon informing the commissioner of environmental protection in writing of the cemetery or burial place in which said remains are to be reinterred and to which the monuments and other distinguishing marks are to be moved.
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Corporation counsel of the city of New York."
2. Not less than sixty days after the last publication date of said notice, the corporation counsel shall make an application to a special term of the supreme court in the same judicial district in which the cemetery or burial place is located for an order authorizing such removal of said remains, monuments and all other distinguishing marks to a cemetery or burial place in the same or an adjoining county from that in which said cemetery or burial place is located. Such order shall be made upon due proof of not less than ten days' notice to interested parties who have appeared by attorney, or who have filed appearances in writing with the corporation counsel, and of proof of publication of notice of such application once in each week for four weeks in each of two newspapers published in the county where such cemetery or burial place is situated, immediately prior to application to the supreme court. Such notice shall briefly set forth the time and place of the making of such application and a designation of the cemetery or burial place to which said remains, monuments and distinguishing marks are sought to be removed. All removals and transportation of such human remains shall be done in accordance with the provisions of the public health law and the local rules or ordinances of any town, city or village wherein such cemetery or burial place is located, or wherein any of such remains may be interred. The commissioner of environmental protection on behalf of the city may acquire by purchase such other lands as may be necessary within the county where such cemetery or burial place is located, or in an adjoining county, for the purpose of properly interring such removed remains, which lands shall be acquired with the approval of the supreme court in the same judicial district as that in which the condemnation proceedings were originally instituted. In the acquisition of such lands no cemetery or burial place shall be divided and the acreage acquired must be at least substantially equal to the acreage taken. The commissioner of environmental protection on behalf of the city may also acquire other lands within the county wherein such cemetery or burial place is located, or in an adjoining county, for the purpose of properly interring and removing such remains, in the same manner as provided by this subchapter for the acquisition of water supply and other lands but such acquisition of such lands shall be subject to approval of the supreme court. No lands shall be acquired within the corporate limits of a village or city except within the bounds of an existing cemetery unless by consent of the board of trustees of the village or common council of the city or other authorities within such village or city occupying similar positions as trustees or aldermen, respectively. The supreme court, upon application for the confirmation of the report of the commissioners, shall make inquiry as to the rights of individual lot owners in cemeteries and provide for the protection of such rights as justice shall require. All the bodies removed by said commissioner of environmental protection shall, when distinguishable, be encased each in a separate box or coffin, and each monument, head stone, foot stone, slab, board or other designating or distinguishing mark shall be properly removed and reset at the grave of each body at the time of such reinterment. Members of the same family shall be reinterred in contiguous graves. Whenever any person or persons, legally entitled to direct as to the disposition of any human remains now interred in a cemetery or burial place, shall request, in writing, within the sixty day period aforesaid, the burial of such remains in a cemetery in the same or an adjoining county, the commissioner shall cause such remains to be reinterred where requested within the same county or in adjoining county, and shall carefully and properly remove such remains to such burial plot and properly reinter the same, and in the event that any human remains be removed to, and reinterred in any other place other than that acquired as herein provided, no portion of the expense for the acquisition of any other grave, graves, or other place or places of burial shall be borne by the city, but in such event the city shall bear only the expense of removal and transportation of such remains. Whenever there is no request to remove remains within the sixty day period as hereinbefore provided, the corporation counsel shall apply for an order authorizing such removal in the manner herein provided. Whenever any person or persons legally entitled to direct as to the disposition of any human remains exhumed or to be exhumed from any cemetery or burial place as herein provided, elect to remove the same for reinterment to any burial plot or cemetery not within the same county from which such remains were exhumed, or in an adjoining county, such person or persons so entitled to designate such other burial place or plot shall be permitted to remove such exhumed remains from such county, subject to the provisions of the public health law, and the local rules or ordinances of any town, city or village wherein such cemetery or burial place shall be located, or wherein such human remains may be reinterred, but no portion of the expense of such transportation or burial shall be borne by the commissioner of environmental protection. When any lands acquired for the purposes of reinterment of human remains as herein provided, to which shall have been removed all remains exhumed from a cemetery or burial place belonging to an individual or individuals, or to a corporation organized under the religious corporations law, the not-for-profit corporation law or by special act, or belonging to a town, village or city, the board of estimate of the city of New York shall, after reinterment, execute and deliver, without expense to the prior owner, if an individual, or if such prior owner be a corporation, to the trustees or other governing body of such corporation, by whatsoever name or title they may hold office, or to the board of trustees, if any, of a town burial ground, and to their successors in office, a quit claim deed covering the lands so acquired, together with all structures erected thereon, and where lands have been acquired for the purpose of reinterment of human remains exhumed from a public or private cemetery or burial place which shall have been used by the inhabitants of any town in this state as a cemetery or burial place for the space of fourteen years and not having a board of trustees pursuant to the provisions of the town law, the board of estimate of the city of New York shall, after reinterment, execute and deliver, and without expense to the grantee therefor a quit claim deed or other proper release to such town wherein such lands so acquired as provided by this section may be situated, and such cemetery or burial place shall from and after the execution and delivery thereof be deemed to be vested in such town, and shall be subject, in the same manner as other corporate property of towns, to the government and direction of directors in town meeting, excepting, however, that where such lands so acquired for the purposes set forth in this section are situated within the limits of a village or city, such quit claim deed or release herein provided for shall be executed and delivered to such village or city and thereafter be and become property of such village or city and subject to the laws governing such village or city. From and after the execution and delivery by the board of estimate as by this section provided, of the quit claim deed or release, the city of New York shall be divested of all right and title to said lands so quit claimed or released and shall not thereafter be liable for the care, custody, maintenance and control thereof. This section does not limit any existing right of burial or removal of remains under other provisions of law applicable thereto. Nothing herein contained shall impose any duty whatsoever upon the city of New York for the care, custody, maintenance and control of any burial grounds, cemeteries or other places of interment for human remains.
