Sponsored by:
Senator STEPHEN M. SWEENEY
District 3 (Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem)
Senator KEVIN J. O'TOOLE
District 40 (Bergen, Essex, Morris and Passaic)
Senator NELLIE POU
District 35 (Bergen and Passaic)
Co-Sponsored by:
Senators Sacco and Rice
SYNOPSIS
Prohibits religious entities from engaging in certain practices involving cemeteries, funeral homes and mortuaries, memorials, mausoleums and burial vaults.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As reported by the Senate Commerce Committee on December 8, 2014, with amendments.
An Act concerning certain religious entities and supplementing chapter 1 of Title 16 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, rule or regulation to the contrary, a religious corporation, association, organization or society, however formed or incorporated, that owns or controls a cemetery or that engages in the management, operation or sales of or for a cemetery, whether directly or indirectly, or the owner or operator of a religious cemetery, is prohibited from engaging, directly or indirectly, in:
(1) the ownership, manufacture, installation, sale, creation, inscription, provision or conveyance, in any form, of memorials;
(2) the ownership, manufacture, installation, sale, creation, provision or conveyance, in any form, of vaults, including vaults installed in a grave before or after sale and including vaults joined with each other in the ground;
(3) the ownership, manufacture, installation, sale, creation, provision or conveyance, in any form, of a mausoleum intended for private use, which shall not include a mausoleum built for use by or sale to the general public membership of a religious organization;
(4) the ownership or conduct of any funeral home or mortuary, or the engaging in the business or profession of funeral directing or mortuary science;
(5) the sale, renting or leasing of any of its real property 1[, including that which is adjacent to a cemetery or]1 dedicated to cemetery purposes, for the location of a funeral home or mortuary or the conduct of the business or profession of funeral directing or mortuary science; or
(6) the entering into a management contract to authorize control of its cemetery related operations with any entity that, directly or indirectly, in this State, engages in the ownership or conduct of a funeral home or mortuary or that engages in the business or profession of funeral directing or mortuary science.
b. As used in this act:
(1) "funeral directing," "mortuary" and "mortuary science" shall have the same meanings as set forth in section 3 of P.L. 1952, c. 340 (C. 45:7-34); and
(2) "mausoleum," "memorial" and "vault" shall have the same meanings as set forth in section 2 of P.L.2003, c.261 (C.45:27-2).
2. This act shall take effect immediately.