A cemetery authority may sell interment spaces after completing the map or plat, and in certain New Orleans cemeteries may take possession of abandoned interment spaces, but may not demolish them.
§308. Sale of cemetery spaces; abandoned spaces defined; sale of abandoned spaces A. After completing the map or plat, a cemetery authority may sell and convey interment spaces, subject to such rules and regulations adopted by the cemetery authority, and subject to such other limitations, conditions, and restrictions as may be included in the instrument of conveyance of such cemetery spaces. B. In the event that any of the interment spaces in municipal, religious, and nonprofit cemeteries in the city of New Orleans have been abandoned as defined in Subsection C of this Section for more than a period of ten years, then a cemetery authority managing the cemetery in which such space is located, after advertising in the official journal of the city of New Orleans a notice attesting to such fact, may take possession of but not demolish such abandoned interment spaces and sell and convey same subject to rules and regulations as set forth in Subsection A of this Section. C.(1) Interment space shall be deemed to have been abandoned when one of the following occurs: (a) A cemetery authority shall have been unable to locate any of the owners or their successors or heirs after diligent efforts for twenty-five years. (b) In the event such interment space is no longer fit for human burial, there has been no interment in the preceding twenty-five years and the cemetery authority shall have been unable to locate any of the owners or their successors or heirs to provide care, maintenance, or repairs for an interment space after diligent efforts for one year. (2) A cemetery authority shall be deemed to have made diligent efforts to locate the owners or their successors or heirs of an interment space if such authority: (a) Has advertised a notice stating that such authority proposes to acquire such interment space pursuant to this Section, which notice shall be advertised: (i) In the case of the twenty-five-year period: (aa) Once per year in each of the first twenty-four years of such period. (bb) Once per month during the last year of such twenty-five-year period. (ii) In the case of the one-year period, once per month during such one-year period. (b) Has posted a notice on the space to the same effect as that specified in Subparagraph (a) of this Paragraph, once per month during the last year of either of such periods of time, and has mailed a registered or certified letter to the last known owners of the interment space, which letter shall contain a notice to the same effect as that specified in Subparagraph (a) of this Paragraph; however, the requirements of this Subparagraph shall not be applicable to the extent that the records of the cemetery authority acting pursuant to this Section do not contain the name and address of any owner of the interment space. (c) Is determined by a court of competent jurisdiction to have exercised diligent efforts to locate the owners; provided, however, that prior to the initiation of any such legal action, the cemetery authority has conformed with the requirements of the one-year period of monthly advertisements, postings, and mailings as provided in Subparagraph (a) of this Paragraph and evidence of such notices has been exhibited to the court. Acts 1974, No. 417, §1. Amended by Acts 1978, No. 747, §1, eff. July 17, 1978; Acts 2011, 1st Ex. Sess., No. 34, §1; Acts 2022, No. 574, §1.