Article III — City-Owned Cemeteries

The herein adopted rules and regulations are applicable to removal of all remains in cemeteries owned and controlled by the City. Said rules may be modified from time to time by resolution. (Ord. 1155 § 2, 1-31-1967; Formerly § 6-15)

The resolution referred to in SCCC § 2.135.350 must declare the abandonment in whole or in part of the cemetery as a burial place for the human dead and for the removal of human remains interred therein to another cemetery or cemeteries within the boundaries of the City as in this article provided.

(Ord. 1155 § 2, 1-31-1967; Formerly § 6-16)

Any resolution or declaration for abandonment and removal adopted and made under the provisions of this chapter shall specify and declare that at any time after the expiration of sixty (60) days after the first publication of the notice of declaration of abandonment and removal the human remains then remaining in the cemetery or part thereof will be removed by the City. (Ord. 1155 § 2, 1-31-1967; Formerly § 6-17)

Notice of the declaration of abandonment and the proposed removal of all human remains from any abandoned cemetery, or part thereof, shall be given to all persons interested therein, by publication in a newspaper of general circulation published within the city. Publication shall be made once a week for four consecutive times. The notice shall be entitled "Notice of the Declaration of Abandonment of Lands for Cemetery Purposes and of Intention to Remove the Human Bodies Interred Therein" and shall specify a date not less than sixty (60) days after the first publication of the notice when the City owning or controlling the cemetery lands and causing the notice to be published will proceed to remove the human remains then remaining in said cemetery, or part thereof. (Ord. 1155 § 2, 1-31-1967; Formerly § 6-18)

Copies of the notice so published shall within ten days after the first publication thereof be posted in at least three conspicuous places in the cemetery from which the removal of the human remains interred therein are to be made, and a further copy of the notice shall be mailed by registered letter to every person who owns or holds or has the right of burial in any lot or plot in the cemetery, or part thereof, affected by the resolution or declaration of abandonment and removal, whose name appears as owner or controller on the records of the cemetery. The notice so mailed shall be addressed to the last known post office address of the respective lot owner or plot holder as the same appears

from the records of the cemetery, and if no address appears or is known, then it shall be addressed to such persons at the County seat of the County of Santa Clara. Notice shall be mailed to any known living heir at law of any person whose remains are interred in the cemetery when the address of the heir is known.

(Ord. 1155 § 2, 1-31-1967; Formerly § 6-19)

After the completion of the publication, posting and mailing of the "Notice of Declaration of Abandonment of Land for Cemetery Purposes and of Intention to Remove the Human Bodies Interred Therein," and after the expiration of sixty (60) days as specified in the notice, the City owning or controlling the cemetery shall have power to cause the removal of all human remains interred in the cemetery, or part thereof, to be abandoned as a cemetery or a burial place of the dead, and to cause the reinterment in cemeteries in the city where burials are permitted, without further notice to any persons claiming any interest in the cemetery, or part thereof, or in the remains therein interred.

(Ord. 1155 § 2, 1-31-1967; Formerly § 6-20)

At any time before the date fixed for the removal of remains by the City owning or controlling such cemetery land, any relative or friend of any person whose remains are interred in the cemetery, or part thereof, from which it is proposed to make removal, may give the City proposing to make removal written notice that he/she desires to be present when the remains of a friend or relative are disinterred or reinterred. The notice shall state the name of the person whose remains are referred to and, as accurately as possible, shall describe the lot or plot where the remains are buried and the date of the burial, and shall specify an address to which the notice provided for in SCCC § 2.135.480 may be made. Notice may be delivered at the cemetery office or the City Hall, 1500 Warburton Avenue, Santa Clara, California, or may be forwarded thereto by registered mail. (Ord. 1155 § 2, 1-31-1967; Formerly § 6-21)

Upon receipt of such notice before the date fixed for the removal of the remains by the City proposing to make removals, it shall be the duty of the City to give written notice to the persons giving the notice provided for in SCCC § 2.135.470 , of the time when the remains shall be disinterred and of the time when and the place where the same shall be reinterred. The notice shall be given by delivery thereof at the address stated in the notice referred to in SCCC § 2.135.470 , or by mailing the same to the person giving such notice, at the address stated, delivery or mailing to be made not less than ten days prior to the date specified for the disinterment of such remains. Whenever written notice shall be given by a relative or friend of any persons interred in the cemetery lands from which removals are proposed to be made, the City owning or controlling such cemetery lands and proposing to remove the bodies interred therein shall not disinter the bodies until notice of such disinterment is given such relative or friend.

(Ord. 1155 § 2, 1-31-1967; Formerly § 6-22)

At any time prior to the removal, by the City owning or controlling the abandoned cemetery lands, of the remains of any persons buried in the abandoned cemetery, any relative or friend of the person may voluntarily remove the remains and deposit the same as he may desire; provided, however, that the persons desiring to cause removal prior to such removal shall deliver to the City owning or controlling the abandoned cemetery, an affidavit, duly sworn to before an officer qualified to administer oaths, stating the name of the person whose remains it is desired to remove and further stating, so far as known to affiant, the date of burial of the remains and the names and places of residence of the heirs at law of the deceased person.

(Ord. 1155 § 2, 1-31-1967; Formerly § 6-23)

In the event that the person desiring to cause such removal is not an heir at law of the person whose remains he desires to remove, removal shall not be made by him until he shall have delivered to the City owning or controlling the abandoned cemetery a written consent of a majority of the known heirs at law of the deceased person who are residents of the State of California. The statements in the affidavit shall be sufficient evidence of the numbers, names and residences of the heirs at law for all the purposes of this chapter and the written consent of the majority of heirs at law named in the affidavit shall be sufficient warrant and authority for the City owning or controlling the abandoned cemetery to permit the removal of the remains by such persons. (Ord. 1155 § 2, 1-31-1967; Formerly § 6-24)

The purchaser or owner of any burial lot or plot in the abandoned cemetery, or part thereof, or of the right of burial therein or any one of the joint purchasers of any lot or plot of burial land therein may cause the removal of any person or of the remains interred in such lot or plot without the necessity of signing any affidavit of consent as specified in SCCC § 2.135.490 . (Ord. 1155 § 2, 1-31-1967; Formerly § 6-25)

If the right, title or interest of any grantee of any burial lot or plot of the abandoned cemetery, or the right of burial therein, shall have passed by succession to the heir or heirs at law of the grantee without formal distribution by order of court, the heir or heirs at law may remove the remains of persons interred in such lot or plot, and the affidavit of any heir at law setting out the fact of heirship shall be accepted by the City owning or controlling the abandoned cemetery land from which removals are to be made as sufficient evidence for all the purposes of this chapter of the fact of the transfer of title or right of burial to such heir or heirs at law. (Ord. 1155 § 2, 1-31-1967; Formerly § 6-26)

Whenever the remains of any person shall have been removed from any abandoned cemetery, or the part thereof abandoned as a burial place under the provisions of this chapter, by the City having

charge or control of the abandoned cemetery lands, the remains shall be transported and reinterred in any other cemetery lands within the boundaries of the city. (Ord. 1155 § 2, 1-31-1967; Formerly § 6-27)

The remains of each person reinterred shall be placed in a separate and suitable receptacle and decently and respectfully interred under the rules and regulations now in force or that may be adopted by resolution of the City making the removal. (Ord. 1155 § 2, 1-31-1967; Formerly § 6-28)

Whenever the remains of any person shall be removed from any abandoned cemetery by any relative or friend of such person, under the provisions of this chapter, the persons causing such removal shall also be entitled to remove any vault, monument, headstone, coping or other improvement appurtenant to the grave from which the remains have been removed, and the affidavit or written consent given under the provisions of SCCC § 2.135.490 shall be sufficient warrant and authority for the City owning or controlling the abandoned cemetery to permit the removal of any vault, monument, headstone, coping or other improvement appurtenant to the grave. (Ord. 1155 § 2, 1-31-1967; Formerly § 6-29)

Whenever the remains of any person buried in any lot or plot shall have been removed, and any vault, monument, headstone, coping or other improvement appurtenant thereto shall remain on the lot or plot for more than sixty (60) days after removal of the last human remains therefrom, the vault, monument, headstone, coping or other improvement may be removed and disposed of by the City owning or controlling the abandoned cemetery land, and thereafter no persons claiming any interest in the lot or plot or the vault, monument, headstone, coping or other improvement appurtenant thereto, shall have the right to maintain in any court any action in relation to such vault, monument, headstone, coping or other improvement so removed or disposed of. (Ord. 1155 § 2, 1-31-1967; Formerly § 6-30)

Whenever a cemetery or part thereof has been abandoned as a cemetery or place of burial for the human dead, as provided in this chapter, by the City owning or controlling the same, the parts or portions thereof in which no interments have been made and the parts and portions thereof from which all human remains have been removed, may be sold by the City owning or controlling the abandoned cemetery lands. No order of any court shall be required in order to make any sale of lands abandoned for cemetery purposes and from which the human remains have been removed. (Ord. 1155 § 2, 1-31-1967; Formerly § 6-31)

Any moneys received by the City from the sale of the lands of the abandoned cemetery may be used for any purpose as the City may lawfully declare. (Ord. 1155 § 2, 1-31-1967; Formerly § 6-32)

Whenever the City shall remove human bodies or the remains thereof from any abandoned cemetery lands, the City shall reinter any human remains removed in the established cemetery of City; and thereafter the lots or plots in which the human remains removed have been reinterred shall be conveyed to the person or persons, if known, who own the lot or plot in the abandoned cemetery from which the human remains were removed, and the conveyance shall be in full of all right, title and interest of any person or persons owning any lot or plot in the abandoned cemetery from which the human remains have been removed.

(Ord. 1155 § 2, 1-31-1967; Formerly § 6-33)

In the event any person or persons owning any lot or plot within the abandoned cemetery in which no human remains have been interred, the City Council of the City shall convey to such person or persons owning any lot or plot in the abandoned cemetery a lot or plot of equal dimensions in the cemetery owned and conducted by the City, and such conveyance shall be in full of all right, title and interest in and to the lot or plot owned by such person or persons in the abandoned cemetery, and thereafter no person or persons claiming any interest in any such lot or plot shall have the right to maintain in any court an action in relation to such lot or plot owned by such person or persons in the abandoned cemetery.

(Ord. 1155 § 2, 1-31-1967; Formerly § 6-34)

After the removal and reinterment of the human bodies disinterred from any abandoned cemetery, or part thereof, the City owning or controlling the abandoned cemetery lands and making removals shall cause to be erected upon or imbedded in any lot or plot wherein any such body is reinterred, a suitable permanent marker identifying the remains and shall prepare a complete record of the name of each person, where known, whose body was reinterred and the lot or plot in the cemetery where the body was reinterred, and such record shall be kept on file in the office of the City making the removals and reinterments and shall, at all reasonable times, be open to the inspection of the relatives or friends of those so reinterred.

(Ord. 1155 § 2, 1-31-1967; Formerly § 6-35)

After the removal of all human remains interred in any part or the whole of any cemetery lands abandoned as a burial place for the human dead as provided in this chapter, the City owning or controlling the abandoned cemetery lands may file for record in the Office of the County Recorder of the County of Santa Clara, a written declaration reciting that all human remains have been removed from the part or portion of the land described in the declaration. The declaration shall be acknowledged in the manner of the acknowledgment of deeds to real property by the Mayor and the

City Clerk or other corresponding officers, of the City owning or controlling the abandoned cemetery lands, and thereafter, any deed or other conveyance of any part of such lands shall be conclusive evidence in favor of any grantee therein named, his/her successors or assigns, of the fact of the complete removal of all human bodies therefrom.

(Ord. 1155 § 2, 1-31-1967; Formerly § 6-36)