As used in the Endowed Care Cemetery Act:

A. "affiliate" means a corporation that is related to another corporation by shareholdings or other means of control and includes a subsidiary, parent or sibling corporation;

B. "burial park" means a tract of land that has been dedicated to the purposes of and used, and intended to be used, for the interment of remains in graves;

C. "care funds" means realty or personalty impressed with a trust by the terms of a gift, grant, contribution, payment, devise, bequest or contract, and income accumulated therefrom where legally so directed by the terms of the transaction by which the principal was established;

D. "cemetery" means a place dedicated to and used and intended to be used for the permanent interment of remains;

E. "cemetery authority" means a person that owns, operates, controls or manages a cemetery or holds lands for burial purposes;

F. "columbarium" means a structure or space in a structure used, or intended to be used, to contain cremated remains;

G. "cremated remains" means remains after incineration in a crematory;

H. "cremation" means the irreversible process of reducing remains to bone fragments through intense heat and evaporation in a specifically designed furnace or retort and includes a mechanical or thermal process whereby the bone fragments are pulverized, or otherwise further reduced in size or quantity;

I. "crematory" means a structure of most durable and lasting fireproof construction containing one or more specifically designed furnaces or retorts, used, or intended to be used, for cremation of remains;

J. "crypt" means the chamber in a mausoleum of sufficient size to entomb the remains;

K. "depository institution" means an insured bank, thrift institution or credit union;

L. "director" means the director of the financial institutions division of the regulation and licensing department;

M. "endowed care" means the general maintenance of the cemetery area dedicated to endowed care, including the cutting and trimming of lawns, shrubs and trees at reasonable intervals, keeping all places where interments have been made in proper order, keeping in repair the drains, waterlines, roads, buildings, fences and other structures consistent with a well-maintained cemetery; "endowed care" includes overhead expenses necessary for the foregoing purposes, including maintenance of machinery, tools and equipment, compensation of employees for the performance of duties related to endowed care, including reasonable payments for employees' pension and other benefit plans, payment of reasonable and necessary insurance premiums, the maintenance of necessary records of lot ownership, transfers and burials and the administration of care funds in those instances where those administering the funds fail or refuse to act;

N. "endowed or perpetual care cemetery" means a cemetery or that designated portion of a cemetery for the benefit of which a care fund is established;

O. "entombment" means the permanent interment of remains in a crypt or vault;

P. "fraternal cemetery" means a cemetery owned, operated, controlled or managed by any fraternal organization or its auxiliary organizations, in which the sale of burial space is restricted principally to its members;

Q. "grave" means a space of ground in a burial park intended to be used for the permanent interment in the ground of remains;

R. "interment" means the permanent disposition of the remains by inurnment, entombment or burial;

S. "inurnment" means placing cremated remains in an urn;

T. "lot", "plot" or "burial space" means space in a cemetery owned by one or more individuals, an association or fraternal or other organization and used, or intended to be used, for the permanent interment of the remains of one or more deceased persons and includes adjoining graves, adjoining crypts or adjoining niches;

U. "mausoleum" means a structure or building of most durable and lasting fireproof construction used or intended to be used for the permanent interment in crypts of remains;

V. "municipal cemetery" means a cemetery owned, operated, controlled or managed by a incorporated or unincorporated political subdivision;

W. "niche" means a recess in a columbarium used, or intended to be used, for the permanent interment of cremated remains;

X. "no endowed care cemetery" means a cemetery for the benefit of which no care fund has been established;

Y. "plot owner", "owner" or "lot proprietor" means a person in whose name a burial plot is recorded in the office of the cemetery authority as owner of the exclusive right of burial, or who holds from the authority a conveyance of the exclusive rights of burial or a certificate of ownership of the exclusive right of burial;

Z. "religious cemetery" means a cemetery owned, operated, controlled or managed by a recognized church, religious society, association or denomination, or by a cemetery authority or a corporation administering, or through which is administered the secular matters of a recognized church, religious society, association or denomination;

AA. "remains" means the body of a deceased person; and

BB. "vault" means a container that is designed for placement in a grave space around a casket or urn.

History: 1953 Comp., § 67-29-3, enacted by Laws 1961, ch. 156, § 3; repealed and reenacted by Laws 2001, ch. 149, § 3.

Repeals and reenactments. — Laws 2001, ch. 149, § 3 repeals 58-17-3 NMSA 1978, as enacted by Laws 1961, ch. 156, § 3, and enacts the above section, effective July 1, 2001.

Section in pari materia with criminal statute. — Section 30-12-12, regarding disturbing the remains of a third person (now disturbing a marked burial ground), is in pari materia with this section and should be construed with reference to the definition of "cemetery" supplied by this section. 1987 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 87-31.

"Cemetery". — This section embraces the well-established notion that land must be set apart as a cemetery to qualify as a cemetery by definition. 1987 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 87-31.