Session Laws

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. The Taunton Cemetery, a duly established corporation, hereinafter called the cemetery may, by deed duly executed, convey and transfer to the city of Taunton, and said city is hereby authorized and empowered to receive, and thereafter to hold and maintain, for cemetery purposes only, and subject to all rights heretofore existing in any burial lots, the real and personal property of the cemetery not subject to any trust, and, thereupon, and upon the transfer of the trust funds as hereinafter provided, the cemetery shall be dissolved; and the cemetery shall be and become a public burial place, ground or cemetery.

SECTION 2. Insofar as authorized by a decree of a court of competent jurisdiction and in compliance with the terms and conditions of such decree, said city may receive from the cemetery a conveyance and transfer of, and administer, all funds or other property held by the cemetery in trust for the perpetual care of the lots in the cemetery and for other purposes, and also any property devised or bequeathed to the cemetery under the will of any person living at the time of said transfer or conveyance or under the will of any deceased person not then probated. Interest and dividends accruing on funds deposited in trust with any savings bank under authority of section twenty-five of chapter one hundred and sixty-eight of the General Laws, or with any other banking institution, for the benefit of the cemetery, or any lots in the cemetery may, after such conveyance, be paid by such bank or institution to the treasurer of said city, and upon such payment said treasurer shall use the same for the purposes of said trusts.

SECTION 3. All real and personal property and property rights, acquired by said city from the cemetery under authority of this act, shall be held and managed by said city in the same manner in which cities and towns are authorized by law to hold and manage property for cemetery purposes; provided, that all rights which any persons have acquired in the cemetery or any lots therein shall remain in force to the same extent as if this act had not been enacted and such transfer had not occurred. The records of the cemetery shall be delivered to the clerk of said city and said clerk is authorized to certify copies thereof.