Tennessee Code 62-5-707 – Funeral establishment’s right to rely on contract or authorization
Terms Used In Tennessee Code 62-5-707
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- 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
- Decedent: A deceased person.
- 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
- Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
- Right of disposition: means the right to determine the disposition of the remains of a decedent, including the location, manner, and conditions of disposition and arrangements for funeral goods and services. See Tennessee Code 62-5-701
Any person signing a funeral service agreement, cremation authorization form, or any other authorization for disposition shall be deemed to warrant the truthfulness of any facts set forth therein, including the identity of the decedent whose remains are to be buried, cremated, or otherwise disposed of, and the party’s authority to order such disposition. A funeral establishment shall have the right to rely on such funeral service contract or authorization and shall have the authority to carry out the instructions of the person whom the funeral establishment reasonably believes holds the right of disposition. No funeral establishment is responsible for contacting or independently investigating the existence of any next-of-kin or relative of the decedent.