2020 New York Laws
NPC - Not-For-Profit Corporation
Article 15 - Public Cemetery Corporations
1506-D - Cemetery Merger Authorization.

§ 1506-d. Cemetery merger authorization.
  (a)  Upon  application  and  approval  by  the  cemetery  board and in
compliance with this  article  and  article  nine  of  this  chapter,  a
cemetery corporation organized pursuant to this chapter or by general or
special  law  or by special act of the legislature may merge with one or
more other cemetery corporations located within a fifty mile  radius  of
the  principal  place of business of the surviving cemetery corporation.
Nothing in this section shall require, as a condition  of  any  cemetery
merger,  that  the  cemetery  property  involved  in such transaction be
adjacent or contiguous property or  be  limited  to  a  certain  maximum
number  of  total  acres  so  long  as the merging cemetery corporations
demonstrate to the cemetery board that  the  resulting  merged  cemetery
corporation  will  have  sufficient  assets  to  maintain  its  cemetery
properties and manage its operations.
  (b) Upon application  and  approval  by  the  cemetery  board  and  in
compliance  with  this  article  and  article  nine  of  this chapter, a
cemetery corporation organized pursuant to this chapter or by general or
special law or by special act of the legislature, which had, at the  end
of  the  preceding financial reporting year, ten million dollars or more
in total  financial  assets,  including  all  general  funds,  permanent
maintenance  funds,  perpetual care funds, special trust funds and other
restricted or unrestricted funds  under  the  control  of  the  cemetery
corporation,  regardless  of  the form in which they are held, may merge
with one or more cemetery corporations located greater than a fifty mile
radius from the principal place of business of  the  surviving  cemetery
corporation  to create a single entity with multiple cemetery locations,
regardless of the geographic distance between its cemetery locations  or
from  the  surviving cemetery corporation's principal place of business,
so long as the surviving cemetery corporation provides the following  to
the cemetery board: (1) an outline of financial management controls that
have  been  or  will  be  implemented to accommodate multiple cemeteries
operated  at  locations  geographically  distant  from   the   surviving
cemetery;  (2) an outline of the total financial assets of each cemetery
corporation to be merged demonstrating that the surviving cemetery  will
have  sufficient  financial  resources to operate the merged cemeteries;
(3) information regarding the location of  all  corporate  and  cemetery
records  of  the  merged  cemeteries,  as  well as procedures for remote
access to such records by all lot owners of the merged cemeteries; (4) a
plan for providing remote maintenance and  operations  services  to  the
merged  cemeteries, including those that are geographically distant; (5)
contact information, to  be  posted  at  the  entrance  to  each  merged
cemetery  and  on  any  website  maintained  by  the surviving cemetery,
listing  the  contact  information  for  the  surviving  cemetery;   (6)
procedures  for  conducting  lot  owners'  meetings  for  remote  merged
cemeteries; and (7) procedures for providing notice to lot owners of all
merged cemeteries of the place, date and hour of the annual  meeting  of
the  surviving  cemetery, which notice shall be published in a newspaper
located in each county  in  which  any  merged  cemetery  is  physically
located,  shall  be  prominently  posted on the homepage of any web site
maintained by the surviving cemetery, and shall  otherwise  comply  with
section six hundred five of this chapter.
  (c)  Pursuant  to  section  fifteen hundred five-a of this article the
surviving cemetery corporation shall, if necessary, within  ninety  days
after  the  consummation  of  any  merger  under this section, amend its
certificate of incorporation to list each city,  village  or  town,  and
county  where any part of the surviving cemetery is or is proposed to be
situated, and shall file such amended certificate of incorporation  with
the office of the county clerk of each applicable county.
  (d) Nothing in this section shall prohibit a cemetery corporation from
merging  with  a  crematory operation, regardless of the location of the
operation of such cemetery corporation. Any  purchase,  abandonment,  or
donation  of  real  property  to  a  cemetery  corporation, or merger of
cemetery corporations, that has occurred on or before January first, two
thousand twenty, including any such transaction previously authorized or
approved  by  the cemetery board shall be deemed to be duly ratified and
shall not be subject to the additional  provisions  of  section  fifteen
hundred six of this article or any further review by the cemetery board.