2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-FOUR - Health and Sanitation (§§ 1 — 15010) › PART IV - Vital Statistics Registry (§§ 1041 — 1325) › Chapter 97 - Cemeteries (§§ 1271 — 1274) › § 1273 - Common municipal cemeteries; registries in “barrios”

Any two (2) or more municipalities, upon proper resolutions of their respective municipal legislatures, with their mutual consent, and with the approval of the Governor, may establish and maintain a common cemetery in any one of said municipalities, in the following manner and under the following conditions:
(a) That the cemetery shall be under the direction and government of the Secretary of Health, who shall make the necessary provisions for its establishment, maintenance, and all necessary incidentals thereto. The expenses of the establishment and adequate maintenance of the cemetery and of the Registry of Vital Statistics hereinafter mentioned and everything incidental thereto, shall be met by the coparticipant municipalities in such proportional share and amount as may be determined by the Secretary of Health with the approval of the Governor. If, upon being notified, a municipality should not pay its quota, the same shall be paid by the Secretary of the Treasury of Puerto Rico and the amount so paid shall constitute a lien upon the municipal income collected by said Secretary of the Treasury of Puerto Rico for the account of the respective municipality owing said quota, which amount shall be retained by the Secretary of the Treasury of Puerto Rico from said collections.
(b) That the Secretary of Health shall establish an office of vital statistics in a place near the cemetery to receive and register the certificates of births and deaths occurring in the barrios or parts of barrios to be served by the cemetery, as well as for issuing marriage licenses and to receive and register certificates of marriages between the residents of said barrios or parts of barrios. Said registry shall be under a registrar appointed by the Secretary of Health, and entries shall be made and registers kept in all cases prescribed by this part; Provided, That separate books shall be kept for each one of the coparticipant municipalities.
The keepers of the Registers established in rural barrios shall forward to the Secretary of Health, on or before the fifth (5th) day of each month, the originals of all certificates registered during the preceding month, in the same manner as is done in the other registries of Puerto Rico, and they shall receive from the respective municipalities the corresponding compensation for each certificate, at the rates specified in § 37 of Act Apr. 22, 1931, No. 24.
(c) No municipality which is a coparticipant in a common cemetery, as stated above, can withdraw its aid, except with the proper consent of the other coparticipant municipalities or of the Governor.
(d) Any municipality, having no participation in a cemetery, may join in the maintenance and operation of any common cemetery already established provided it conforms entirely with the provisions of this part relative to original coparticipant municipalities.
History —Apr. 22, 1931, No. 24, p. 228, § 41, eff. 90 days after Apr. 22, 1931.