Mo. Rev. Stat. § 214.270

Current with changes from the 2024 Legislative Session

Section 214.270 - Definitions

As used in sections 214.270 to 214.410, the following terms mean:

(1)"Agent" or "authorized agent", any person empowered by the cemetery operator to represent the operator in dealing with the general public, including owners of the burial space in the cemetery;

(2)"Burial merchandise", a monument, marker, memorial, tombstone, headstone, urn, outer burial container, or similar article which may contain specific lettering, shape, color, or design as specified by the purchaser;

(3)"Burial space", one or more than one plot, grave, mausoleum, crypt, lawn, surface lawn crypt, niche or space used or intended for the interment of the human dead;

(4)"Cemetery", property restricted in use for the interment of the human dead by formal dedication or reservation by deed but shall not include any of the foregoing held or operated by the state or federal government or any political subdivision thereof, any incorporated city or town, any county or any religious organization, cemetery association or fraternal society holding the same for sale solely to members and their immediate families;

(5)"Cemetery association", any number of persons who shall have associated themselves by articles of agreement in writing as a not-for-profit association or organization, whether incorporated or unincorporated, formed for the purpose of ownership, preservation, care, maintenance, adornment and administration of a cemetery. Cemetery associations shall be governed by a board of directors. Directors shall serve without compensation;

(6)"Cemetery operator" or "operator", any person who owns, controls, operates or manages a cemetery;

(7)"Cemetery prearranged contract", any contract with a cemetery or cemetery operator for burial merchandise or burial services covered by sections 214.270 to 214.410 which is entered into before the death of the individual for whom the burial merchandise or burial services are intended;

(8)"Cemetery service" or "burial service", those services performed by a cemetery owner or operator licensed as an endowed care or nonendowed cemetery including setting a monument or marker, setting a tent, excavating a grave, interment, entombment, inurnment, setting a vault, or other related services within the cemetery;

(9)"Columbarium", a building or structure for the inurnment of cremated human remains;

(10)"Community mausoleum", a mausoleum containing a substantial area of enclosed space and having either a heating, ventilating or air conditioning system;

(11)"Department", department of commerce and insurance;

(12)"Developed acreage", the area which has been platted into grave spaces and has been developed with roads, paths, features, or ornamentations and in which burials can be made;

(13)"Director", director of the division of professional registration;

(14)"Division", division of professional registration;

(15)"Endowed care", the maintenance, repair and care of all burial space subject to the endowment within a cemetery, including any improvements made for the benefit of such burial space. Endowed care shall include the general overhead expenses needed to accomplish such maintenance, repair, care and improvements. Endowed care shall include the terms perpetual care, permanent care, continual care, eternal care, care of duration, or any like term;

(16)"Endowed care cemetery", a cemetery, or a section of a cemetery, which represents itself as offering endowed care and which complies with the provisions of sections 214.270 to 214.410;

(17)"Endowed care fund", "endowed care trust", or "trust", any cash or cash equivalent, to include any income therefrom, impressed with a trust by the terms of any gift, grant, contribution, payment, devise or bequest to an endowed care cemetery, or its endowed care trust, or funds to be delivered to an endowed care cemetery's trust received pursuant to a contract and accepted by any endowed care cemetery operator or his agent. This definition includes the terms endowed care funds, maintenance funds, memorial care funds, perpetual care funds, or any like term;

(18)"Escrow account", an account established in lieu of an endowed care fund as provided under section 214.330 or an account used to hold deposits under section 214.387;

(19)"Escrow agent", an attorney, title company, certified public accountant or other person authorized by the division to exercise escrow powers under the laws of this state;

(20)"Escrow agreement", an agreement subject to approval by the office between an escrow agent and a cemetery operator or its agent or related party with common ownership, to receive and administer payments under cemetery prearranged contracts sold by the cemetery operator;

(21)"Family burial ground", a cemetery in which no burial space is sold to the public and in which interments are restricted to persons related by blood or marriage;

(22)"Fraternal cemetery", a cemetery owned, operated, controlled or managed by any fraternal organization or auxiliary organizations thereof, in which the sale of burial space is restricted solely to its members and their immediate families;

(23)"Garden mausoleum", a mausoleum without a substantial area of enclosed space and having its crypt and niche fronts open to the atmosphere. Ventilation of the crypts by forced air or otherwise does not constitute a garden mausoleum as a community mausoleum;

(24)"Government cemetery", or "municipal cemetery", a cemetery owned, operated, controlled or managed by the federal government, the state or a political subdivision of the state, including a county or municipality or instrumentality thereof;

(25)"Grave" or "plot", a place of ground in a cemetery, used or intended to be used for burial of human remains;

(26)"Human remains", the body of a deceased person in any state of decomposition, as well as cremated remains;

(27)"Inurnment", placing an urn containing cremated remains in a burial space;

(28)"Lawn crypt", a burial vault or other permanent container for a casket which is permanently installed below ground prior to the time of the actual interment. A lawn crypt may permit single or multiple interments in a grave space;

(29)"Mausoleum", a structure or building for the entombment of human remains in crypts;

(30)"Niche", a space in a columbarium used or intended to be used for inurnment of cremated remains;

(31)"Nonendowed care cemetery", or "nonendowed cemetery", a cemetery or a section of a cemetery for which no endowed care trust fund has been established in accordance with sections 214.270 to 214.410;

(32)"Office", the office of endowed care cemeteries within the division of professional registration;

(33)"Owner of burial space", a person to whom the cemetery operator or his authorized agent has transferred the right of use of burial space;

(34)"Person", an individual, corporation, partnership, joint venture, association, trust or any other legal entity;

(35)"Registry", the list of cemeteries maintained in the division office for public review. The division may charge a fee for copies of the registry;

(36)"Religious cemetery", a cemetery owned, operated, controlled or managed by any church, convention of churches, religious order or affiliated auxiliary thereof in which the sale of burial space is restricted solely to its members and their immediate families;

(37)"Surface lawn crypt", a sealed burial chamber whose lid protrudes above the land surface;

(38)"Total acreage", the entire tract which is dedicated to or reserved for cemetery purposes;

(39)"Trustee of an endowed care fund", the separate legal entity qualified under section 214.330 appointed as trustee of an endowed care fund.

§ 214.270, RSMo

L. 1961 p. 538 § 2, A.L. 1990 H.B. 1079, A.L. 1994 S.B. 496, A.L. 1996 S.B. 494, A.L. 2002 S.B. 892, A.L. 2008S.B. 788 , A.L. 2009S.B. 296 , A.L. 2010H.B. 1692, et al. merged with H.B. 2226, et al. merged with S.B. 754