TIZEA'ITORNEY 

OF TEXAS 

GENERAL 

AUSTIN. TSGXAEI 78711 

October 7. 1974 

The Honorable Ogden Bass 

District Attorney 

Brazoria County 

Angleton, Texas 77515 

Opinion No. H- 414 

Re: Whether corporation may 

operate two or more separate 

cemeteries. 

Dear Mr. Bass: 

You have requested an opinion as to whether a single corporation 

may operate two or more separate cemeteries. You advise: 

Restwood Memorial Park, Inc., a cemetery 

association organized under Art. 912a, R. C. S., 

contemplates the acquisition of land five miles 

short of the city’limits of any city of 5,000 to 

25,000 population to be dedicated for cemetery 

purposes. The land will not be adjacent to or 

contiguous with the existing land of the Association so dedicated. 

You ask whether the association may use the second tract as a cemetery. 

In Texas the operation and maintenance of cemeteries is regulated 

by Articles 912a-1 et seq., V. T. C. S. Directly in point is Article 912a-24 

which provides: 

(a) It shall be unlawful for any person, company, 

corporation, or association to establish or use for burial 

purposes any graveyard or cemetery, or any mausoleum 

and/or cemetery except in a cemetery heretofore established and operating, located within, or within less than 

one (1) mile from, the incorporated line of any city of not 

less than five thousand (5,000) nor more than twenty-five 

p. 1933 
The Honorable Ogden Bass page 2 (H-414) 

thousand (25,000) inhabitants according to the last 

preceding Federal Census, or within, or within less 

than two (2) miles from, the incorporated line of any 

city of not less than twenty-five thousand (25,000) nor 

more than fifty thousand (50,000) inhabitants according 

to the lastpreceding Federal Census, or within, or 

within less than three (3) miles from, the incorporated 

line of any city of not less than fifty thousand (50,000) 

nor more than one hundred thousand (loo, 000) inhabitants 

according to the last preceding Federal Census, or within, 

or within less than four (4) miles from, the incorporated 

line of any city of not less than one hundred thousand 

QOO, 000) nor more than two hundred thousand (200,000) 

inhabitants, according to the last preceding Federal Census, 

or within, or within less than five (5) miles from, the 

incorporated line of any city or not less than two hundred 

thousand (ZOO, 000) inhabitants, according to the last 

preceding Federal Census: provided that where cemeteries 

have heretofore been used and maintained within the limits 

hereinabove set forth, and additional lands are required 

for cemetery purposes, land adjacent to said cemetery may 

be acquired by the cemetery association operating such 

cemetery, to be used as an addition to such cemetery, and 

the use of said additional land for such purposes shall be 

exempt from the provisions of this Section: and further 

provided that the establishment or use of a columbarium 

by any organized religious society or sect as a part of or 

attached to the principal church building owned by such 

religious society or sect, and within the limits hereinabove 

set forth, shall not be unlawful, and shall be exempt from 

the provisions of this Section. 

. . . 

This provision plainly prohibits the establishment of a cemetery on land 

located within one mile of the incorporated line of any city having a population of not less than five thousand nor more than twenty five thousand 

p. 1934 
. - 

The Honorable Ogden Bass page 3 (H-414) 

inhabitants unless that land is already being used as a cemetery. But in 

the situation about which you have asked the association proposes to acquire 

land more than one mile from the city limits for use as a second cemetery. 

Assuming this is not within the prohibited distance of any other city, Article 

912a-24 does not prohibit the acquisition of this land for cemetery purposes. 

See, Faulk v. Buena Vista Burial Park Assoc., 152 S. W. 2d 891 (Tex. Civ. 

APP. --El Paso 1941, no writ): Franklin v. Pietzsch, 334 S. W. 2d 214 (Tex. 

Civ. App. --Dal~las 1960, writ ref’d., n. r. e.). 

A second issue raised by your request, however, is whether in any 

circumstances a single corporation may own and operate two separate 

cemeteries. Nowhere in Article 912a does there appear any prohibition 

against such an arrangement. Furthermore in Attorney General Opinion 

V-1130 (1950) this office implicitly recognized that a perpetual care corporation is permitted to operate two separate cemeteries when it held that such 

a corporation would be required to file separate annual statements and 

maintain separate perpetual care funds for each cemetery. In view of 

Attorney General Opinion V-1130 and in the absence of any compelling 

reason for a contrary conclusion, it is our opinion that a single corporation 

is authorized to own and operate two or more separate cemeteries. 

SUMMARY 

A single corporation may own and operate two 

separate cemeteries so long as all the requirements 

for the operation of a cemetery set out in Articles 

912a-1, et seq. are met. 

DAVID M. KENDALL, Chairman 

torney General of Texas 

Opinion Committee 

pa 1935