subject: Cemetery Monuments and Markers [print this page] Cemetery Monuments and Markers Cemetery Monuments and Markers
Cemetery Monuments and Markers
As we have seen, cemeteries include the traditionalmonuments, and the modern memorial type of metal plate. Thetraditional prerogative of the family was to determine thenature of marker or monument to be placed at the grave of aloved one, its size and design being dictated solely by the tasteand pocketbook of the survivor. With the growth ofcemeteriesand the changing of tastes and business practices, theprovision of markers for graves has been more closelyregulatedby the cemeteries themselves as well as by public authority.
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It is almost always permissible for cemetery managementsto impose reasonable controls on the placement of markersand monuments on cemetery lots. The regulations in forcewhen the lot is purchased usually are included in the deed orincorporated by reference into the document. Later rules andregulations may be adopted under the terms of a power reserved to the cemetery corporation by the contract of sale,while still others may be imposed by state statute or localordinance.
Normally, a monument placed at a lot under the terms of aregulation existing at the time of its placement need not be removed if the rule is changed at a later date. The courts haveresisted attempts of cemetery corporations to secure amonopolyin the sale and distribution of markers and monuments,but have permitted and sustained reasonable regulations, suchas those requiring that the cemetery management shall havethe right to install or to supervise all bases for markers. Somecemeteries have sought to impose rules requiring that theythemselves supply all markers for graves, but if these rules areunreasonable, they can be invalidated by the court. A number of cases have turned on the efforts of modern memorial parksto control exclusively the sale and installation of the bronzemarkers that form the prevailing type of grave identificationin such cemeteries.
Regulations may control the wording of epitaphs onmonumentsor markers, at least to the extent of forbiddingdefamatory, offensive, or vindictive language. In a New York casedecided by a veteran jurist, one of the few justices of theSupreme Court of the State of New York ever to be electedon three separate occasions for terms of 14 years, the action was brought by a Membership Corporation operating a sectionof a cemetery for the interment of remains of deceasedmembers and their families. The cemetery sought aninjunctiondirecting the son-in-law of a member, who had erected atombstone over his wife's grave containing the carvedinscriptionreading in part "Beneath This Stone Lies a Woman WhoLoved Life But Was Murdered By A Doctor Whose Name IsNot Worthy To Appear Here," to remove the objectionablelanguage.
