Illinois Code § 815 ILCS 390/4

Definitions.
Open in Lexace · Ask the AI about this section
As used in this Act, the following terms shall
have the meaning specified:

 
(A) "Pre-need sales contract" or "Pre-need sales" means any
agreement or contract or series or combination of agreements or contracts which
have for a purpose the sale of cemetery merchandise, cemetery services or
undeveloped interment, entombment or inurnment spaces where the terms of
such sale require payment or payments to be made at a currently determinable
time and where the merchandise, services or completed spaces are to be
provided more than 120 days following the initial payment on the account.
An agreement or contract for a memorial, marker, or monument shall not be
deemed a "pre-need sales contract" or a "pre-need sale" if the memorial,
marker, or monument is delivered within 180 days following initial payment on
the account and work thereon commences a reasonably short time after initial
payment on the account.

 
(B) "Delivery" occurs when:

 
 
(1) Physical possession of the merchandise is 
 
transferred or the easement for burial rights in a completed space is executed, delivered and transferred to the buyer; or

 
 
(2) Following authorization by a purchaser under a 
 
pre-need sales contract, title to the merchandise has been transferred to the buyer and the merchandise has been paid for and is in the possession of the seller who has placed it, until needed, at the site of its ultimate use; or

 
 
(3) Following authorization by a purchaser under a 
 
pre-need sales contract, the merchandise has been permanently identified with the name of the buyer or the beneficiary and delivered to a licensed and bonded warehouse and both title to the merchandise and a warehouse receipt have been delivered to the purchaser or beneficiary and a copy of the warehouse receipt has been delivered to the licensee for retention in its files; except that in the case of outer burial containers, the use of a licensed and bonded warehouse as set forth in this paragraph shall not constitute delivery for purposes of this Act. Nothing herein shall prevent a seller from perfecting a security interest in accordance with the Uniform Commercial Code on any merchandise covered under this Act.

 
 
All warehouse facilities to which sellers deliver 
 
merchandise pursuant to this Act shall:

 
 
 
(i) be either located in the State of Illinois or 
 
 
qualify as a foreign warehouse facility as defined herein;

 
 
 
(ii) submit to the Comptroller not less than 
 
 
annually, by March 1 of each year, a report of all cemetery merchandise stored by each licensee under this Act which is in storage on the date of the report;

 
 
 
(iii) permit the Comptroller or his designee at 
 
 
any time to examine stored merchandise and to examine any documents pertaining thereto;

 
 
 
(iv) submit evidence satisfactory to the 
 
 
Comptroller that all merchandise stored by said warehouse for licensees under this Act is insured for casualty or other loss normally assumed by a bailee for hire;

 
 
 
(v) demonstrate to the Comptroller that the 
 
 
warehouse has procured and is maintaining a performance bond in the form, content and amount sufficient to unconditionally guarantee to the purchaser or beneficiary the prompt shipment of the cemetery merchandise.

 
(C) "Cemetery merchandise" means items of personal property normally
sold by a cemetery authority not covered under the Illinois Funeral or Burial
Funds Act, including but not limited to:

 
 
(1) memorials,

 
 
(2) markers,

 
 
(3) monuments,

 
 
(4) foundations, and

 
 
(5) outer burial containers.

 
(D) "Undeveloped interment, entombment or inurnment spaces" or
"undeveloped spaces" means any space to be used for the reception of human
remains that is not completely and totally constructed at the time of
initial payment therefor in a:

 
 
(1) lawn crypt,

 
 
(2) mausoleum,

 
 
(3) garden crypt,

 
 
(4) columbarium, or

 
 
(5) cemetery section.

 
(E) "Cemetery services" means those services customarily performed
by cemetery or crematory personnel in connection with the interment,
entombment, inurnment or cremation of a dead human body.

 
(F) "Cemetery section" means a grouping of spaces intended to be
developed simultaneously for the purpose of interring human remains.

 
(G) "Columbarium" means an arrangement of niches that may be an entire
building, a complete room, a series of special indoor alcoves, a bank along
a corridor or part of an outdoor garden setting that is constructed of
permanent material such as bronze, marble, brick, stone or concrete for the
inurnment of human remains.

 
(H) "Lawn crypt" means a permanent underground crypt usually constructed
of reinforced concrete or similar material installed in multiple units for
the entombment of human remains.

 
(I) "Mausoleum" or "garden crypt" means a grouping of spaces constructed
of reinforced concrete or similar material constructed or assembled above
the ground for entombing human remains.

 
(J) "Memorials, markers and monuments" means the object usually comprised
of a permanent material such as granite or bronze used to identify and
memorialize the deceased.

 
(K) "Foundations" means those items used to affix or support a memorial
or monument to the ground in connection with the installation of a memorial,
marker or monument.

 
(L) "Person" means an individual, corporation, partnership, joint
venture, business trust, voluntary organization or any other form of entity.

 
(M) "Seller" means
any person selling or offering for sale cemetery
merchandise, cemetery services or undeveloped interment, entombment, or
inurnment spaces in accordance with a pre-need sales contract.

 
(N) "Religious cemetery" means a cemetery owned, operated, controlled
or managed by any recognized church, religious society, association or
denomination or by any cemetery authority or any corporation administering,
or through which is administered, the temporalities of any recognized
church, religious society, association or denomination.

 
(O) "Municipal cemetery" means a cemetery owned, operated, controlled or
managed by any city, village, incorporated town, township, county or other
municipal corporation, political subdivision, or instrumentality thereof
authorized by law to own, operate or manage a cemetery. "Municipal cemetery" also includes a cemetery placed in receivership pursuant to this Act while such cemetery is in receivership. 

 
(O-1) "Outer burial container" means a container made of concrete, steel,
wood, fiberglass, or similar material, used solely at the interment site, and
designed and used exclusively to surround or enclose a separate casket and to
support the earth above such casket, commonly known as a burial vault, grave
box, or grave liner, but not including a lawn crypt.

 
(P) "Sales price" means the gross amount paid by a
purchaser on a
pre-need sales contract for cemetery merchandise, cemetery services or
undeveloped interment, entombment or inurnment spaces, excluding sales
taxes, credit life insurance premiums, finance charges and Cemetery Care
Act contributions.

 
(Q) (Blank).

 
(R) "Provider" means a person who is responsible for
performing cemetery services or furnishing cemetery
merchandise, interment spaces, entombment spaces, or
inurnment spaces under a pre-need sales contract.

 
(S) "Purchaser" or "buyer" means the person who
originally paid the money under or in connection with a
pre-need sales contract.

 
(T) "Parent company" means a corporation owning more than 12 cemeteries or
funeral homes in more than one state.

 
(U) "Foreign warehouse facility" means a warehouse facility
now or
hereafter located in any state or territory of the United States, including
the District of Columbia, other than the State of Illinois.

 
A foreign warehouse facility shall be deemed to have appointed the
Comptroller to be its true and lawful attorney upon whom may be served all
legal process in any action or proceeding against it relating to or growing
out of this Act, and the acceptance of the delivery of stored merchandise
under this Act shall be signification of its agreement that any such
process against it which is so served, shall be of the same legal force and
validity as though served upon it personally.

 
Service of such process shall be made by delivering to and leaving with
the Comptroller, or any agent having charge of the Comptroller's Department
of Cemetery and Burial Trusts, a copy of such process and such service
shall be sufficient service upon such foreign warehouse facility if notice
of such service and a copy of the process are, within 10 days thereafter,
sent by registered mail by the plaintiff to the foreign warehouse facility
at its principal office and the plaintiff's affidavit of compliance
herewith is appended to the summons. The Comptroller shall keep a record
of all process served upon him under this Section and shall record therein
the time of such service.

transferred or the easement for burial rights in a completed space is executed, delivered and transferred to the buyer; or
pre-need sales contract, title to the merchandise has been transferred to the buyer and the merchandise has been paid for and is in the possession of the seller who has placed it, until needed, at the site of its ultimate use; or
pre-need sales contract, the merchandise has been permanently identified with the name of the buyer or the beneficiary and delivered to a licensed and bonded warehouse and both title to the merchandise and a warehouse receipt have been delivered to the purchaser or beneficiary and a copy of the warehouse receipt has been delivered to the licensee for retention in its files; except that in the case of outer burial containers, the use of a licensed and bonded warehouse as set forth in this paragraph shall not constitute delivery for purposes of this Act. Nothing herein shall prevent a seller from perfecting a security interest in accordance with the Uniform Commercial Code on any merchandise covered under this Act.
merchandise pursuant to this Act shall:
qualify as a foreign warehouse facility as defined herein;
annually, by March 1 of each year, a report of all cemetery merchandise stored by each licensee under this Act which is in storage on the date of the report;
any time to examine stored merchandise and to examine any documents pertaining thereto;
Comptroller that all merchandise stored by said warehouse for licensees under this Act is insured for casualty or other loss normally assumed by a bailee for hire;
warehouse has procured and is maintaining a performance bond in the form, content and amount sufficient to unconditionally guarantee to the purchaser or beneficiary the prompt shipment of the cemetery merchandise.

‹ Prev All Illinois sections Next ›


Lexace provides legal information, not legal advice, and no attorney–client relationship is created. Statute text is provided for general information and may not reflect the most recent amendments; verify against the official state code.