Chapter Definitions

1. Law
2. Tennessee Code
3. Cemeteries
4. Regulation of Cemeteries
5. General Provisions
6. Chapter Definitions

As used in this chapter and chapter 2 of this title, unless the context otherwise requires:

1. “Cemetery” means any land or structure in this state dedicated to and used, or intended to be used, for interment of human remains;
2. “Cemetery company” means an individual, partnership, corporation, or association, now or hereafter organized, owning or controlling cemetery lands or property and conducting the business of a cemetery;
3. “Cemetery merchandise” means personal property sold by a cemetery company, such as foundations, markers, memorials, memorial bases, monuments, urns, vases, and lawn and mausoleum crypts;
4. “Cemetery operator” means any owner, director, principal, manager, member, stockholder with a majority ownership interest, or other person who has any ownership interest in, or has any control over, the financial operations of a cemetery company;
5. “Cemetery purposes” means all things requisite or necessary for, or incident or convenient to, the establishment, maintenance, management, operation, improvement and conduct of a cemetery, the preparation of the premises for interment and the interment of the human dead, and the care, preservation and embellishment of cemetery property;
6. “Columbarium” means a structure, room or space in a building or structure used, or intended to be used, for the interment of cremated human remains;
7. “Commissioner” means the commissioner of commerce and insurance;
8. “Commodity” includes, but is not limited to, memorials consisting of permanent monuments or gravemarkers of marble, granite or bronze, bronze plaques, or bronze vases, and foundations or footings of the memorials. “Commodity” does not include floral arrangements and plants;
9. “Consumer price index” means the consumer price index (all items-United States city average), as published by the United States department of labor, bureau of labor statistics;
10. “Crypt” means a chamber of sufficient size to inter the remains of a deceased person;
11. “General fund” means the sum total of specific funds placed in a single fund;
12. “Human remains” or “remains” means the body of a deceased person, including the body in any stage of decomposition, and cremated remains;
13. “Improvement care” means the continual maintenance of the cemetery grounds and graves in keeping with a properly maintained cemetery, including cutting of grass, raking and cleaning of cemetery plots at reasonable intervals, and pruning of shrubs and trees; memorial care of commodities; procuring, maintaining and keeping in workable condition the machinery, tools and equipment needed for the shop and replacing the machinery, tools and equipment when necessary; keeping in repair and preserving the drains, water lines, roads, buildings, fences and other structures, including cemetery-owned statues and embellishments of general character applicable to the cemetery as a whole or a particular area; and paying of insurance premiums and maintaining  necessary records of lot ownership, burials and other necessary information and making the records available to public authorities and interested persons;
14. “Interment” means any lawful disposition of the remains of a deceased person as provided by law;
15. “Interment right” means the right to inter human remains in a particular space in a cemetery, including, but not limited to a grave space, mausoleum crypt, niche, memorial bench, or scattering garden;
16. “Lawn crypts” means pre-installed, below-the-ground concrete chambers, either single or double depth, covered by earth or sod;
17. “Lot” or “grave space” means a space of ground in a cemetery used or intended to be used for interment, the beautification of the ground, or the memorialization of the deceased person;
18. “Mausoleum crypts” means chambers contained in a structure or building constructed of reinforced concrete, whether assembled above or below ground;
19. “Memorial care” includes, but is not limited to, resetting or straightening tipped commodities, replacing damaged commodities, and providing for the general maintenance of commodities;
20. “Niche” means a space in a columbarium used, or intended to be used, for the interment of the cremated remains of one (1) or more deceased persons;
21. “Pre-need” means the time prior to death when the use of cemetery merchandise or services is not actually required;
22. “Services” means acts performed by a cemetery company on its premises in the final interment of human remains or the installation of cemetery merchandise used in connection with final interment;
23. “Specific funds” means funds identified with cemetery merchandise to be delivered, or services to be performed, as specified in a certain contract and earmarked as having been paid by a certain purchaser; and
24. “Undeveloped” means real property that is not presently suitable for interment, entombment or inurnment as described in the purchase agreement.

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