(a) A cemetery company has the power to purchase land, not exceeding two hundred (200) acres, to be used as a cemetery forever, to lay the land off in suitable avenues or walks and embellish with trees, shrubbery, and flowers, and to subdivide the land into lots suitable for graves, monuments, and vaults, and sell the lots in the manner that the board of directors of the cemetery determines; provided, that any land may be purchased and used as a cemetery at any place within a town or city after the proposed location has been approved by resolution of the governing body of the town or city.

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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 46-1-108

  • Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
  • Cemetery: means any land or structure in this state dedicated to and used, or intended to be used, for interment of human remains. See Tennessee Code 46-1-102
  • 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. See Tennessee Code 46-1-102
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Interment: means any lawful disposition of the remains of a deceased person as provided by law. See Tennessee Code 46-1-102
  • 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. See Tennessee Code 46-1-102
  • Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • 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. See Tennessee Code 46-1-102
  • 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
(b) Each contract for the sale of burial space or the conveyance of interment rights shall be executed in duplicate, and an executed copy shall be given to the purchaser.
(c) If a specific interment site is selected by the purchaser at the time the purchase contract is executed, the contract shall contain a detailed description of the location of the interment site purchased. All such contracts must also contain the following or similar notices to the purchaser:

“This cemetery is regulated by the State of Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance Burial Services Section. The purchaser or the purchaser’s designated legal agent has the right upon request to access the cemetery’s records relating to the purchaser’s interment right or interment site. Within ninety (90) days of the receipt of the final payment on the purchase contract for any interment right, the purchaser shall receive from the cemetery company proof of ownership of that interment right. The purchaser, at the purchaser’s own cost, may record a copy of such proof of ownership with the register of deeds for the county in which the cemetery is located.”

(d) All lots sold to purchasers pursuant to subsection (c) shall forever be free from attachment or the levy of an execution.