As Introduced
135th General Assembly
Regular Session H. B. No. 699
2023-2024
Representatives Brewer, Piccolantonio
Cosponsor: Representative McNally
A BILL
To amend sections 9.15, 313.12, 759.01, 1713.36, 1
1721.06, 1721.18, 1721.21, 2108.15, 2108.70, 2
2108.72, 2108.75, 2108.82, 2108.83, 2108.84, 3
2108.85, 2108.86, 2108.87, 2111.13, 2743.51, 4
2925.01, 3705.01, 3705.17, 3705.18, 3705.19, 5
3705.20, 3707.19, 4511.451, 4717.01, 4717.03, 6
4717.04, 4717.06, 4717.07, 4717.072, 4717.08, 7
4717.11, 4717.13, 4717.14, 4717.15, 4717.20, 8
4717.21, 4717.22, 4717.23, 4717.24, 4717.25, 9
4717.26, 4717.27, 4717.28, 4717.29, 4717.30, 10
4717.36, 4717.41, 4767.05, 5120.45, 5121.11, 11
5121.53, 5901.25, 5901.26, 5901.27, 5901.29, and 12
5901.32 and to enact section 4717.052 of the 13
Revised Code to authorize the use of natural 14
organic reduction and alkaline hydrolysis as a 15
form of disposition and to amend the version of 16
section 4717.07 of the Revised Code that is 17
scheduled to take effect on December 29, 2023, 18
and the versions of sections 4717.01, 4717.03, 19
4717.04, 4717.06, 4717.07, 4717.08, 4717.11, 20
4717.13, 4717.15, 4717.36, and 4717.41 of the 21
Revised Code that are scheduled to take effect 22
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As Introduced
on December 31, 2024, to continue the change on 23
and after those dates. 24
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:
Section 1. That sections 9.15, 313.12, 759.01, 1713.36, 25
1721.06, 1721.18, 1721.21, 2108.15, 2108.70, 2108.72, 2108.75, 26
2108.82, 2108.83, 2108.84, 2108.85, 2108.86, 2108.87, 2111.13, 27
2743.51, 2925.01, 3705.01, 3705.17, 3705.18, 3705.19, 3705.20, 28
3707.19, 4511.451, 4717.01, 4717.03, 4717.04, 4717.06, 4717.07, 29
4717.08, 4717.11, 4717.13, 4717.14, 4717.15, 4717.20, 4717.21, 30
4717.22, 4717.23, 4717.24, 4717.25, 4717.26, 4717.27, 4717.28, 31
4717.29, 4717.30, 4717.36, 4717.41, 4767.05, 5120.45, 5121.11, 32
5121.53, 5901.25, 5901.26, 5901.27, 5901.29, and 5901.32 be 33
amended and section 4717.052 of the Revised Code be enacted to 34
read as follows: 35
Sec. 9.15. As used in this section, "legal residence" 36
means a permanent place of abode used or occupied as living 37
quarters at the time of a person's death, including a nursing 38
home, hospital, or other care facility. 39
When the body of a dead person is found in a township or 40
municipal corporation, and such person was not an inmate of a 41
correctional, benevolent, or charitable institution of this 42
state, and the body is not claimed by any person for private 43
interment or , cremation, reduction, or hydrolysis at the 44
person's own expense, or delivered for the purpose of medical or 45
surgical study or dissection in accordance with section 1713.34 46
of the Revised Code, it shall be disposed of as follows: 47
(A) If the person was a legal resident of the county, the 48
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As Introduced
proper officers of the township or municipal corporation in 49
which the person's body was found shall cause it to be buried or 50
, cremated, reduced, or hydrolyzed at the expense of the 51
township or municipal corporation in which the person had a 52
legal residence at the time of death. 53
(B) If the person had a legal residence in any other 54
county of the state at the time of death, the superintendent of 55
the county home of the county in which such body was found shall 56
cause it to be buried or , cremated, reduced, or hydrolyzed at 57
the expense of the township or municipal corporation in which 58
the person had a legal residence at the time of death. 59
(C) If the person was an inmate of a correctional 60
institution of the county or a patient or resident of a 61
benevolent institution of the county, the person had no legal 62
residence in the state, or the person's legal residence is 63
unknown, the superintendent shall cause the person to be buried 64
or , cremated, reduced, or hydrolyzed at the expense of the 65
county. 66
Such officials shall provide, at the grave of the person 67
or, if the person's cremated, reduced, or hydrolyzed remains are 68
buried, at the grave of the person's cremated remains, a metal, 69
stone, or concrete marker on which the person's name and age, if 70
known, and date of death shall be inscribed. 71
A political subdivision is not relieved of its duty to 72
bury or , cremate, reduce, or hydrolyze a person at its expense 73
under this section when the body is claimed by an indigent 74
person. As used in this section, "indigent person" means a 75
person whose income does not exceed one hundred fifty per cent 76
of the federal poverty line, as revised annually by the United 77
States department of health and human services in accordance 78
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As Introduced
with section 673(2) of the "Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 79
1981," 95 Stat. 511, 42 U.S.C. 9902, as amended, for a family 80
size equal to the size of the person's family. 81
Sec. 313.12. (A) When any person dies as a result of 82
criminal or other violent means, by casualty, by suicide, or in 83
any suspicious or unusual manner, when any person, including a 84
child under two years of age, dies suddenly when in apparent 85
good health, or when any person with a developmental disability 86
dies regardless of the circumstances, the physician called in 87
attendance, or any member of an ambulance service, emergency 88
squad, or law enforcement agency who obtains knowledge thereof 89
arising from the person's duties, shall immediately notify the 90
office of the coroner of the known facts concerning the time, 91
place, manner, and circumstances of the death, and any other 92
information that is required pursuant to sections 313.01 to 93
313.22 of the Revised Code. In such cases, if a request is made 94
for cremation, reduction, or hydrolysis, the funeral director 95
called in attendance shall immediately notify the coroner. 96
(B) As used in this section, "developmental disability" 97
has the same meaning as in section 5123.01 of the Revised Code. 98
Sec. 759.01. Any municipal corporation may provide public 99
cemeteries and crematories crematory, reduction, and hydrolysis 100
facilities for burial or , incineration, reduction, or 101
hydrolysis of the dead and regulate public and private 102
cemeteries and crematories crematory, reduction, and hydrolysis 103
facilities. Any cemetery established by a municipal corporation 104
shall register with the division of real estate in the 105
department of commerce pursuant to section 4767.03 of the 106
Revised Code. Any cemetery of that nature is subject to Chapter 107
4767. and to sections 517.23 to 517.25 and 1721.211 of the 108
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As Introduced
Revised Code in addition to being subject to this chapter. 109
Sec. 1713.36. After the bodies referred to in section 110
1713.34 of the Revised Code have been subjected to medical or 111
surgical examination or dissection or for the study of 112
embalming, the remains thereof shall be interred, or shall be 113
cremated, reduced, or hydrolyzed and the ashes remains interred, 114
in some suitable place at the expense of the parties in whose 115
keeping the corpse was placed. 116
Sec. 1721.06. After paying for its land, a cemetery 117
company or association shall apply all its receipts and income, 118
whether from sale of lots, from donations, or otherwise, 119
exclusively to laying out, preserving, protecting, and 120
embellishing the cemetery and avenues within it or leading to 121
it, to the erection of buildings necessary or appropriate for 122
cemetery purposes, and to paying the necessary expenses of the 123
cemetery company or association. No debts shall be incurred by 124
the cemetery company or association except for purchasing, 125
laying out, inclosing, and embellishing the ground, buildings 126
necessary or appropriate for cemetery purposes, and avenues, for 127
which purposes it may contract debts to be paid out of future 128
receipts. For purposes of this section, buildings appropriate 129
for cemetery purposes include, but are not limited to, buildings 130
for crematory, reduction, or hydrolysis facilities, funeral 131
homes, and other buildings intended to produce income for the 132
cemetery company or association. 133
No part of the funds of a cemetery company or association, 134
or of the proceeds of land sold by it, shall ever be divided 135
among its stockholders or lot owners, and all its funds shall be 136
used exclusively for the purposes of the company or association 137
as specified in this section, or invested in a fund the income 138
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As Introduced
of which shall be so used and appropriated. 139
Sec. 1721.18. Any company or association incorporated for 140
the erection and maintenance of a crematory, reduction, or 141
hydrolysis facility may exercise all the rights and powers 142
conferred by sections 1721.01 to 1721.18, inclusive, of the 143
Revised Code, subject to the conditions provided in such 144
sections. No building shall be erected for such a purpose within 145
two hundred yards of a dwelling house unless the owner of the 146
dwelling house gives his the owner's consent. No person, 147
company, association, or firm shall establish a morgue on a 148
street upon which there are dwelling houses unless the owners or 149
occupants of all dwelling houses within two hundred yards of the 150
proposed morgue give their written consent thereto. This section 151
does not apply to a crematory built, or a morgue established, as 152
of on or before April 3, 1900. 153
Sec. 1721.21. (A) As used in this section: 154
(1) "Person" means any corporation, company, partnership, 155
individual, or other entity owning or operating a cemetery for 156
the disposition of human remains. 157
(2) "Cemetery" means any one or a combination of more than 158
one of the following: 159
(a) A burial ground for earth interments; 160
(b) A mausoleum for crypt entombments; 161
(c) A columbarium for the deposit of cremated, reduced, or 162
hydrolyzed remains; 163
(d) A scattering ground for the spreading of cremated, 164
reduced, or hydrolyzed remains. 165
(3) "Interment" means the disposition of human remains by 166
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As Introduced
earth burial, entombment, or inurnment. 167
(4) "Burial right" means the right of earth interment. 168
(5) "Entombment right" means the right of entombment in a 169
mausoleum. 170
(6) "Columbarium right" means the right of inurnment in a 171
columbarium for cremated, reduced, or hydrolyzed remains. 172
(7) "Human remains" means any part of the body of a 173
deceased human being, in any stage of decomposition or state of 174
preservation, or the remaining bone fragments from the body of a 175
deceased human being that has been reduced by cremation, 176
reduction, hydrolysis, or alternative disposition. 177
(B) No person shall operate or continue to operate any 178
cemetery in this state unless an endowment care trust is 179
established and maintained as required by this section. 180
(C) Any person desiring to operate any cemetery that is 181
organized or developed after July 1, 1970, before offering to 182
sell or selling any burial lot, burial right, entombment right, 183
or columbarium right in that cemetery, shall first establish an 184
endowment care trust, segregated from other assets, and place in 185
that fund a minimum of fifty thousand dollars in cash or in 186
bonds of the United States, this state, or any county or 187
municipal corporation of this state. 188
Whenever any person described in this division has placed 189
another fifty thousand dollars in the endowment care trust out 190
of gross sales proceeds, in addition to the deposit required by 191
this division, that person, after submitting proof of this fact 192
to the trustees of the endowment care trust, may be paid a 193
distribution in the sum of fifty thousand dollars from the 194
endowment care trust. 195
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As Introduced
(D) Any person desiring to operate or to continue to 196
operate any cemetery after July 1, 1970, shall place into the 197
endowment care trust as required by this section not less than 198
ten per cent of the gross sales proceeds received from the sale 199
of any burial lot, burial right, entombment right, or 200
columbarium right. This percentage shall be placed in the 201
endowment care trust no later than thirty days following the 202
month in which the entire gross sales are received. 203
(E) The trustees of the endowment care trust shall consist 204
of at least three individuals who have been residents of the 205
county in which the cemetery is located for at least one year, 206
or a trust company licensed under Chapter 1111. of the Revised 207
Code or a national bank or federal savings association that has 208
securities pledged in accordance with section 1111.04 of the 209
Revised Code. If the trustees are not a financial institution or 210
trust company, the trustees shall be bonded by a fidelity bond, 211
or insured under an insurance policy less any deductible, in an 212
aggregate amount of not less than one hundred per cent of the 213
funds held by the trustees. The trustees or their agent shall, 214
on a continuous basis, keep exact records as to the amount of 215
funds under any joint account or trust instrument being held for 216
the individual beneficiaries showing the amount paid, the amount 217
deposited and invested, and accruals and income. 218
The funds of the endowment care trust shall be held and 219
invested in the manner in which trust funds are permitted to be 220
held and invested pursuan