(a) A funeral director shall utilize the services only of licensed crematory facilities.
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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 62-5-107

  • Authorizing agent or agents: means a person or persons legally entitled to authorize the cremation of a dead human body or body parts. See Tennessee Code 62-5-101
  • Cremation: means the heating process by which a human body or body parts are reduced to bone fragments through combustion and evaporation. See Tennessee Code 62-5-101
  • Crematory: includes crematorium. See Tennessee Code 62-5-101
  • Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
  • Funeral establishment: means any business, whether a proprietorship, partnership, firm, association or corporation, engaged in arranging, directing or supervising funerals for profit or other benefit, the preparing of dead human bodies for burial, the disposition of dead human bodies, the provision or maintenance of place for the preparation for disposition, or for the care or disposition of human bodies. See Tennessee Code 62-5-101
  • signed: includes a mark, the name being written near the mark and witnessed, or any other symbol or methodology executed or adopted by a party with intention to authenticate a writing or record, regardless of being witnessed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(b) If a funeral director utilizes the services of a crematory outside of this state, the crematory must be a licensed facility of the state in which the crematory is located.
(c) Prior to utilizing a crematory, the funeral director shall:

(1) Determine that the crematory is currently licensed in this state or, if an out-of-state crematory, the state in which it is located;
(2) Obtain and maintain a copy of the crematory’s current license and further maintain a copy of the results of the latest regularly scheduled inspection of the crematory by the state in which the facility is located, if that state inspects crematories; and
(3) Deliver a written disclosure to the authorizing agent or agents. The written disclosure shall, at a minimum:

(A) Include the name, telephone number and address of the in-state or out-of-state crematory;
(B) Provide for the specific consent of the authorizing agent or agents for the use of the in-state or out-of-state crematory;
(C) Be signed and dated by the funeral director and the authorizing agent or agents; and
(D) Be retained by the Tennessee funeral director at a licensed Tennessee funeral establishment, with a copy provided to the authorizing agent or agents.
(d) Notwithstanding § 62-5-103, a violation for each use of an unlicensed crematory pursuant to this section shall be punishable only as provided by §§ 56-1-308 and 62-5-317 and any rules promulgated under §§ 56-1-308 and 62-5-317.
(e)

(1) The funeral director shall not be liable for damages in a civil action for any error, inaccuracy or omission of any information delivered pursuant to this section if:

(A) The error, inaccuracy or omission was based upon information provided by public agencies or by other individuals or entities providing information that is required to be disclosed pursuant to this section; and
(B) The funeral director was not grossly negligent in obtaining the information from a third party and transmitting the information as required under this section.
(2) It is an affirmative defense in any such civil action that the funeral director complied with the requirements of this section upon submitting to the court copies of the signed consent form and the license and inspection results of the in-state or out-of-state crematory used by the funeral director for the cremation of the dead human body or body parts that is the subject of the civil action.
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