Montana Code Annotated 1995

MCA ContentsSearchPart Contents


     35-21-102. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, certain words used in this chapter have the following meanings:
     (1) "Columbarium" means a structure, room, or other space in a permanent building or outdoor structure that contains niches for permanent inurnment of cremated remains, as defined in 37-19-101, in a place used or intended to be used and dedicated for interment purposes.
     (2) "Crypt" or "vault" means a space in a mausoleum of sufficient size used or intended to be used to entomb uncremated human remains.
     (3) "Directors" or "governing body" means the board of directors, board of trustees, or other governing body of a mausoleum-columbarium authority.
     (4) "Entombment" means the placement of human remains in a crypt or vault.
     (5) "Human remains" or "remains" has the meaning as defined in 37-19-101.
     (6) "Interment" means the disposition of human remains by cremation and inurnment or entombment in a place used or intended to be used and dedicated for interment purposes.
     (7) "Interment space" means any space in a crypt, vault, or niche of sufficient size for the entombment or inurnment of the remains of one human being.
     (8) "Inurnment" means placing cremated remains in an urn or other permanent container and placing it in a niche.
     (9) "Mausoleum" means a permanent building or outdoor structure suitable for the entombment of human remains in crypts or vaults in a place used or intended to be used and dedicated for interment purposes.
     (10) "Mausoleum business", "columbarium business", and "mausoleum-columbarium business or purposes" are used interchangeably and mean any business and purposes requisite to, necessary for, or incident to establishing, maintaining, operating, improving, or conducting a mausoleum, columbarium, or mausoleum-columbarium; interring human remains; and the care, preservation, and embellishment of the property.
     (11) "Mausoleum-columbarium" means a building or structure containing both a mausoleum and a columbarium.
     (12) "Mausoleum-columbarium authority" means any corporation, whether for profit or not for profit, owning, controlling, or operating lands, buildings, or structures used or intended to be used and dedicated for interment purposes by entombment or inurnment but does not refer to any corporation for profit or not for profit or any association, corporation sole, or other person owning or controlling cemetery lands or property, including mausoleums or columbariums where interment is also made by ground burial.
     (13) "Niche" means a space in a columbarium or urn garden used or intended to be used for inurnment of cremated human remains.
     (14) "Plot" or "interment plot" means space in a mausoleum or columbarium used or intended to be used for the interment of human remains. The terms include and apply to one or more adjoining crypts or vaults or one or more adjoining niches.
     (15) "Plot owner", "owner", or "proprietor" means any person in whose name an interment plot stands of record as owner in the office of a mausoleum-columbarium authority.
     (16) "Temporary receiving vault" means a vault used or intended to be used for the temporary placement of human remains.
     (17) "Urn garden" means a permanent outdoor structure containing niches of stone or reinforced concrete suitable for and used or intended to be used for inurnment of cremated remains in a place used or intended to be used and dedicated for interment purposes. Whenever the context permits, "urn garden" is included in "columbarium".

     History: En. Secs. 1 thru 19, Ch. 35, L. 1949; R.C.M. 1947, 9-501(part), 9-502 thru 9-519; amd. Sec. 11, Ch. 38, L. 1993.

Previous SectionHelpNext Section
Provided by Montana Legislative Services