The trustees of a cemetery association whose cemetery is within the limits of a municipal corporation which by ordinance has prohibited interments in such municipal corporations, whose cemetery is abandoned as a place for the burial of the dead, or which is involved in debt it is unable to pay, may apply, by petition to the court of common pleas of the county in which such cemetery is located, for the sale of the whole or a portion of its grounds, and said court may order such sale. The money derived from such sale shall be applied, under the direction of such court, to the costs of the removal from such grounds and reinterment elsewhere of the remains of the dead and to the payment of any debts of such association. Any surplus of such proceeds over such costs and debts must be invested upon interest, and the income therefrom applied to keeping in repair any unsold portion of the cemetery; if the entire premises are sold, any such surplus shall be divided pro rata among the owners of lots therein. The court shall set a time for the removal of the dead, after the confirmation of such sale.

Notice of the filing of such petition shall be given by publication for four consecutive weeks in some newspaper of general circulation in the county where it is filed, setting forth the object and prayer of the petition and that any person claiming an interest in the subject matter of such petition may appear and file an answer. On final hearing of the case, the court shall make such order or decree as will best secure the rights of the persons having an interest in such cemetery.

Effective Date: 10-01-1953 .