It is declared to be necessary in the public interest that cemeteries advertising or selling "endowed care or perpetual care" in connection with the sale of cemetery lots or burial spaces be subject to sufficient regulation by the state to ensure the establishment of sound business practices necessary to furnish the endowed care or perpetual care guaranteed. The provisions of the Endowed Care Cemetery Act [Chapter 58, Article 17 NMSA 1978] shall be liberally construed to carry out its purposes.

History: 1953 Comp., § 67-29-1, enacted by Laws 1961, ch. 156, § 1; 2001, ch. 149, § 1.

Cross references. — For regulation of municipal cemeteries, see 3-40-1 to 3-40-9 NMSA 1978.

The 2001 amendment, effective July 1, 2001, substituted "endowed" for "endowment" at the end of the first sentence, deleted "of 1961" following "the Endowed Care Cemetery Act" and made stylistic changes throughout the section.

Permission to invest trust funds in securities. — The state bank examiner (now the director of the financial institutions division of the regulation and licensing department) has the authority to require trustees of perpetual care cemetery trust funds to obtain his permission before investing the trust funds in certain securities. 1960 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 60-128.

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — 14 Am. Jur. 2d Cemeteries §§ 6, 20.

Duty to use proceeds of sale of cemetery lots for care, maintenance or improvement of cemetery as affected by statute, 124 A.L.R. 279.

Liability of cemetery in connection with conducting or supervising burial services, 42 A.L.R.4th 1059.

Dead bodies: liability for improper manner of reinterment, 53 A.L.R.4th 394.

Validity, construction, and application of statutes or ordinances regulating perpetual-care trust funds of cemeteries and mausoleums, 54 A.L.R.5th 681.

14 C.J.S. Cemeteries §§ 3, 26, 27.