Require cemeteries to relocate remains if gravestone relocated

As Introduced

136th
General Assembly

Regular
Session
S. B. No. 286

2025-2026

Senator Schaffer

To
amend section 517.23 of the Revised Code
to
require cemetery operators to relocate remains if the gravestone is
relocated.

BE
IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:

Section
1.
That
section 517.23 of the Revised Code be amended to read as follows:

Sec.
517.23.
(A)
Subject to divisions (B), (D), (E), and (F) of this section, the
board of township trustees, the trustees or directors of a cemetery
association, or the other officers having control and management of a
cemetery or the officer of a municipal corporation who has control
and management of a municipal cemetery shall disinter or grant
permission to disinter any remains interred in the cemetery in
either

any

of
the following circumstances:

(1)
Within thirty days after an application for disinterment is filed
with the cemetery in accordance with division (A) of section 517.24
of the Revised Code and payment of the reasonable costs and expense
of disinterment is made by the following applicants:

(a)
A designated representative, or successor, to whom the decedent had
assigned the right of disposition in a written declaration pursuant
to section 2108.70 of the Revised Code and who had exercised such
right at the time of the declarant's death;

(b)
If no designated representative exercised the right of disposition
pursuant to section 2108.70 of the Revised Code, the surviving spouse
of the decedent who is eighteen years of age or older.

(2)
On order of a probate court issued under division (B) of section
517.24 of the Revised Code and payment by the person who applied for
the order under that division of the reasonable costs and expense of
disinterment
;

(3)
If the involved board, trustees, directors, other officers, or
officer of the municipal corporation moves the stone or monument
marking the remains, in which case the involved board, trustees,
directors, other officers, or officer of the municipal corporation
shall reinter the remains where the stone or monument becomes
located
.

(B)
No disinterment shall be made pursuant to this section and section
517.24 of the Revised Code if the decedent died of a contagious or
infectious disease until a permit has been issued by the board of
health of a general health district or of a city health district.
This division does not apply to cremated remains.

(C)
Upon disinterment of remains under division (A)(1) or (2) of this
section, the involved board, trustees, directors, other officers, or
officer of the municipal corporation shall deliver or cause to be
delivered the disinterred remains to the applicant under division
(A)(1) of this section or, if the disinterment was pursuant to court
order issued under division (B) of section 517.24 of the Revised
Code, to the person who applied for the order under that division.

(D)
The board of township trustees, the trustees or directors of a
cemetery association, or the other officers having control and
management of a cemetery or the officer of a municipal corporation
who has control and management of a municipal cemetery may disinter
or grant permission to disinter and, if appropriate, may reinter or
grant permission to reinter any remains interred in the cemetery to
correct an interment error in the cemetery if the board, trustees,
directors, other officers, or officer of the municipal corporation
comply with the internal rules of the cemetery pertaining to
disinterments and if the board, trustees, directors, other officers,
or officer of the municipal corporation provide notice of the
disinterment to the person who has been assigned or reassigned the
rights of disposition for the deceased person under the provisions of
section 2108.70 or 2108.81 of the Revised Code. The board, trustees,
directors, other officers, or officer of the municipal corporation
may correct an interment error under this division without a court
order or an application by a person.

(E)(1)
A person who is an interested party and who is eighteen years of age
or older and of sound mind may apply to the probate court of the
county in which the decedent is interred for an order to prevent the
applicant under division (A)(1) of this section from having the
remains of the decedent disinterred. An application to prevent the
disinterment of the remains of the decedent shall be in writing,
subscribed and verified by oath, and include all of the following:

(a)
If applicable, a statement that the applicant assumed financial
responsibility for the funeral and interment expenses of the
decedent;

(b)
If division (E)(1)(a) of this section is inapplicable relative to the
applicant, a statement that the applicant did not assume financial
responsibility for the funeral and interment expenses of the
decedent;

(c)
A statement that the applicant is eighteen years of age or older and
of sound mind;

(d)
The relationship of the applicant to the decedent;

(e)
A statement of the applicant's reasons to oppose the disinterment of
the remains of the decedent.

(2)
An applicant for an order to prevent the disinterment of the remains
of the decedent under division (E) of this section promptly shall
give notice of the filing of the application by certified mail,
return receipt requested, to the applicant under division (A)(1) of
this section. The notice shall indicate that the applicant has filed
an application for an order to prevent the disinterment of the
remains of the decedent.

(F)(1)
If the repair or replacement of a mausoleum or columbarium
necessitates the disinterment of one or more sets of remains, the
board, trustees, directors, other officers, or officer of the
municipal corporation, shall file a single application with the
probate court in the county where the mausoleum or columbarium is
situated for a disinterment order that authorizes the disinterment
and reinterment of those affected remains in the mausoleum or
columbarium. Upon the filing of the application, the probate court
shall schedule a hearing.

(2)
The board, trustees, directors, other officers, or officer of the
municipal corporation promptly shall provide notice to the surviving
spouses of the affected decedents and to the persons who have been
assigned or reassigned the rights of disposition for the affected
remains under the provisions of sections 2108.70 to 2108.90 of the
Revised Code. The notice shall state that an application for
disinterment has been filed and shall provide the time, date, and
location of the hearing. The notice shall be sent by certified mail,
return receipt requested, or, if the names or addresses of such
persons are unknown and cannot with reasonable diligence be
ascertained, the notice shall be made by publication in a newspaper
of general circulation in the county where the probate court is
located and as otherwise required by the probate court.

(3)
Upon conducting the hearing, the court shall issue an order of
disinterment if all of the following are satisfied:

(a)
The affected remains shall be held in a permanent or temporary
structure on cemetery property that allows for access for visitation
during the times that the cemetery's other grounds and facilities are
open for visitation, shall be properly identified and held in a
secure manner without any commingling of cremated remains, and shall
not be held for a period exceeding eighteen months unless an
extension of time is granted by the probate court for good cause;

(b)
If a mausoleum or columbarium is being replaced, the replacement
mausoleum or columbarium shall be built on property that is owned by
the cemetery and that is either the same property upon which the
original mausoleum or columbarium was located or property that is
contiguous thereto;

(c)
The cemetery provided notice as required under division (F)(2) of
this section;

(d)
Upon considering all of the following, the court finds there are one
or more compelling reasons to issue the requested order of
disinterment:

(i)
The cost, feasibility, and timetable for the repairs or replacement;

(ii)
The current condition of the structure to be repaired or replaced;

(iii)
The location, design, features, and overall quality of the proposed
replacement structure;

(iv)
The input of the persons receiving notice under division (F)(2) of
this section.

(4)
A cemetery is not liable in damages in a civil action if the cemetery
changes the specific location of entombment rights or columbarium
rights due to the repair or replacement of a mausoleum or columbarium
made in accordance with an order issued by the probate court under
division (F)(3) of this section.

(G)
As used in this section and in section 517.24 of the Revised Code:

(1)
"Cemetery" and "interment" have the same meanings
as in section 1721.21 of the Revised Code.

(2)
"Disinterment" means the recovery of human remains by
exhumation, disentombment, or disinurnment. "Disinterment"
does not include the raising and lowering of remains to accommodate
two interments within a single grave and does not include the
repositioning of an outside burial container that encroaches an
adjoining burial space.

Section
2.
That
existing section 517.23 of the Revised Code is hereby repealed.