2009 Iowa Code
Title 13 - Commerce
Subtitle 1 - Insurance and Related Regulation
CHAPTER 523I - IOWA CEMETERY ACT
523I.316 - PROTECTION OF CEMETERIES AND BURIAL SITES.

        523I.316  PROTECTION OF CEMETERIES AND BURIAL SITES.

         1.  Existence of cemetery or burial site -- notification.  If
      a governmental subdivision is notified of the existence of a
      cemetery, or a marked burial site that is not located in a dedicated
      cemetery, within its jurisdiction and the cemetery or burial site is
      not otherwise provided for under this chapter, the governmental
      subdivision shall, as soon as is practicable, notify the owner of the
      land upon which the cemetery or burial site is located of the
      cemetery's or burial site's existence and location.  The notification
      shall include an explanation of the provisions of this section.  If
      there is a basis to believe that interment may have occurred more
      than one hundred fifty years earlier, the governmental subdivision
      shall also notify the state archaeologist.
         2.  Disturbance of interment spaces -- penalty.  A person who
      knowingly and without authorization damages, defaces, destroys, or
      otherwise disturbs an interment space commits criminal mischief in
      the third degree.  Criminal mischief in the third degree is an
      aggravated misdemeanor.
         3.  Duty to preserve and protect.
         a.  A governmental subdivision having a cemetery, or a burial
      site that is not located within a dedicated cemetery, within its
      jurisdiction, for which preservation is not otherwise provided, shall
      preserve and protect the cemetery or burial site as necessary to
      restore or maintain its physical integrity as a cemetery or burial
      site.  The governmental subdivision may enter into a written
      agreement to delegate the responsibility for the preservation and
      protection of the cemetery or burial site to the owner of the
      property on which the cemetery or burial site is located or to a
      public or private organization interested in historical preservation.
      The governmental subdivision shall not enter into an agreement with a
      public or private organization to preserve and protect the cemetery
      or burial site unless the property owner has been offered the
      opportunity to enter into such an agreement and has declined to do
      so.
         b.  A governmental subdivision is authorized to expend public
      funds, in any manner authorized by law, in connection with such a
      cemetery or burial site.
         c.  If a governmental subdivision proposes to enter into an
      agreement with a public or private organization pursuant to this
      subsection to preserve and protect a cemetery or burial site that is
      located on property owned by another person within the jurisdiction
      of the governmental subdivision, the proposed agreement shall be
      written, and the governmental subdivision shall provide written
      notice by ordinary mail of the proposed agreement to the property
      owner at least fourteen days prior to the date of the meeting at
      which such proposed agreement will be authorized.  The notice shall
      include the location of the cemetery or burial site and a copy of the
      proposed agreement, and explain that the property owner is required
      to permit members of the public or private organization reasonable
      ingress and egress for the purposes of preserving and protecting the
      cemetery or burial site pursuant to the proposed agreement.  The
      notice shall also include the date, time, and place of the meeting
      and a statement that the property owner has a right to attend the
      meeting and to comment regarding the proposed agreement.
         d.  Subject to chapter 670, a governmental subdivision that
      enters into an agreement with a public or private organization
      pursuant to this subsection is liable for any personal injury or
      property damage that occurs in connection with the preservation or
      protection of the cemetery or burial site or access to the cemetery
      or burial site by the governmental subdivision or the public or
      private organization.
         For the purposes of this paragraph, "liable" means liability
      for every civil wrong which results in wrongful death or injury to a
      person or injury to property or injury to personal or property rights
      and includes but is not restricted to actions based upon negligence;
      error or omission; nuisance; breach of duty, whether statutory or
      other duty; or denial or impairment of any right under any
      constitutional provision, statute, or rule of law.
         e.  A property owner who is required to permit members of a
      public or private organization reasonable ingress and egress for the
      purpose of preserving or protecting a cemetery or burial site on that
      owner's property and who acts in good faith and in a reasonable
      manner pursuant to this subsection is not liable for any personal
      injury or property damage that occurs in connection with the
      preservation or protection of the cemetery or burial site or access
      to the cemetery or burial site.
         f.  For the purposes of this subsection, reasonable ingress
      and egress to a cemetery or burial site shall include the following:
         (1)  A member of a public or private organization that has entered
      into a written agreement with the governmental subdivision who
      desires to visit such a cemetery or burial site shall give the
      property owner at least ten days' written notice of the intended
      visit.
         (2)  If the property owner cannot provide reasonable access to the
      cemetery or burial site on the desired date, the property owner shall
      provide reasonable alternative dates when the property owner can
      provide access to the member.
         (3)  A property owner is not required to make any improvements to
      that person's property to satisfy the requirement to provide
      reasonable access to a cemetery or burial site pursuant to this
      subsection.
         4.  Confiscation and return of memorials.  A law enforcement
      officer having reason to believe that a memorial or memorialization
      is in the possession of a person without authorization or right to
      possess the memorial or memorialization may take possession of the
      memorial or memorialization from that person and turn it over to the
      officer's law enforcement agency.  If a law enforcement agency
      determines that a memorial or memorialization the agency has taken
      possession of rightfully belongs on an interment space, the agency
      shall return the memorial or memorialization to the interment space,
      or make arrangements with the person having jurisdiction over the
      interment space for its return.
         5.  Burial sites located on private property.  If a person
      notifies a governmental subdivision that a burial site of the
      person's relative is located on property owned by another person
      within the jurisdiction of the governmental subdivision, the
      governmental subdivision shall notify the property owner of the
      location of the burial site and that the property owner is required
      to permit the person reasonable ingress and egress for the purposes
      of visiting the burial site of the person's relative.
         6.  Discovery of human remains.  Any person discovering human
      remains shall notify the county or state medical examiner or a city,
      county, or state law enforcement agency as soon as is reasonably
      possible unless the person knows or has good reason to believe that
      such notice has already been given or the discovery occurs in a
      cemetery.  If there is reason to believe that interment may have
      occurred more than one hundred fifty years earlier, the governmental
      subdivision notified shall also notify the state archaeologist.  A
      person who does not provide notice required pursuant to this
      subsection commits a serious misdemeanor.
         7.  Adverse possession.  A cemetery or a pioneer cemetery is
      exempt from seizure, appropriation, or acquisition of title under any
      claim of adverse possession, unless it is shown that all remains in
      the cemetery or pioneer cemetery have been disinterred and removed to
      another location.  

         2005 Acts, ch 128, §38; 2006 Acts, ch 1117, §123; 2009 Acts, ch
      179, §144
         Referred to in § 523I.212