Florida Statutes 497.284 – Abandoned cemeteries; immunity; actions
Current as of: 2023 | Check for updates
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Terms Used In Florida Statutes 497.284
- Cemetery: means a place dedicated to and used or intended to be used for the permanent interment of human remains or cremated remains. See Florida Statutes 497.005
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- Department: means the Department of Financial Services. See Florida Statutes 497.005
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
- Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
- Person: when used without qualification such as "natural" or "individual" includes both natural persons and legal entities. See Florida Statutes 497.005
- Solicitation: means any communication that directly or implicitly requests an immediate oral response from the recipient. See Florida Statutes 497.005
(1) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, a county or municipality which has within its jurisdiction an abandoned cemetery or a cemetery that has not been reasonably maintained for a period in excess of 6 months may, upon notice to the department, take such action as is necessary and appropriate to provide for maintenance and security of the cemetery. The solicitation of private funds and the expenditure of public funds for the purposes enumerated in this subsection are hereby authorized, provided that no action taken by a county or municipality under this subsection shall establish an ongoing obligation or duty to provide continuous security or maintenance for any cemetery.
(2) No county or municipality nor any person under the supervision or direction of the county or municipality, providing good faith assistance in securing or maintaining a cemetery under subsection (1), may be subject to civil liabilities or penalties of any type for damages to property at the cemetery.
(3) A county or municipality that has maintained or secured a cemetery pursuant to the provisions of subsection (1) may maintain an action at law against the owner of the cemetery to recover an amount equal to the value of such maintenance or security.