Terms Used In Florida Statutes > Chapter 497 > Part VI - Cremation, Crematories, and Direct Disposition

• Alternative container: means an unfinished wood box or other nonmetal receptacle or enclosure, without ornamentation or a fixed interior lining, that is designed for the encasement of human remains and that is made of fiberboard, pressed wood, composition materials (with or without an outside covering), or like materials. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Board: means the Board of Funeral, Cemetery, and Consumer Services. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Casket: means a rigid container that is designed for the encasement of human remains and that is usually constructed of wood or metal, ornamented, and lined with fabric. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• 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
• Cinerator: means a facility where dead human bodies are subjected to cremation. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Columbarium: means a structure or building that is substantially exposed above the ground and that is intended to be used for the inurnment of cremated remains. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Control: means the possession, directly or indirectly, through the ownership of voting shares, by contract, arrangement, understanding, relationship, or otherwise, of the power to direct or cause the direction of the management and policies of a person or entity. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Cremated remains: means all the remains of the human body recovered after the completion of the cremation process, including processing or pulverization that leaves only bone fragments reduced to unidentifiable dimensions and may include the residue of any foreign matter, including casket material, bridgework, or eyeglasses that were cremated with the human remains. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Cremation: means any mechanical or thermal process whereby a dead human body is reduced to ashes and bone fragments. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Cremation chamber: means the enclosed space within which the cremation process takes place. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Cremation container: means the casket or alternative container in which the human remains are transported to and placed in the cremation chamber for a cremation. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• dead human bodies: means the body of a deceased human person for which a death certificate or fetal death certificate is required under chapter 382 and includes the body in any stage of decomposition. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Department: means the Department of Financial Services. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Direct disposal establishment: means a facility licensed under this chapter where a direct disposer practices direct disposition. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Direct disposer: means any person licensed under this chapter to practice direct disposition in this state. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Director: means the director of the Division of Funeral, Cemetery, and Consumer Services. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Division: means the Division of Funeral, Cemetery, and Consumer Services within the Department of Financial Services. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Embalmer: means any person licensed under this chapter to practice embalming in this state. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Final disposition: means the final disposal of a dead human body by earth interment, aboveground interment, cremation, burial at sea, anatomical donation, or delivery to a medical institution for lawful dissection if the medical institution or entity receiving the anatomical donation assumes responsibility for disposition after use pursuant to…. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Funeral director: means any person licensed under this chapter to practice funeral directing in this state. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Funeral establishment: means a facility licensed under this chapter where a funeral director or embalmer practices funeral directing or embalming. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• individual: includes both natural persons and legal entities. 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.
• Legally authorized person: means , in the priority listed:
  1. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• License: includes all authorizations required or issued under this chapter, except where expressly indicated otherwise, and shall be understood to include authorizations previously referred to as registrations or certificates of authority in chapters 470 and 497 as those chapters appeared in the 2004 edition of the Florida Statutes. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Licensee: means the person or entity holding any license or other authorization issued under this chapter, except where expressly indicated otherwise. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: when used without qualification such as "natural" or "individual" includes both natural persons and legal entities. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• person: includes individuals, children, firms, associations, joint adventures, partnerships, estates, trusts, business trusts, syndicates, fiduciaries, corporations, and all other groups or combinations. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Practice of direct disposition: means the cremation of human remains without preparation of the human remains by embalming and without any attendant services or rites such as funeral or graveside services or the making of arrangements for such final disposition. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Preneed: means any arrangement or method, of which the provider of funeral merchandise or services has actual knowledge, whereby any person agrees to furnish funeral merchandise or service in the future. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Probate: Proving a will
• Processing: means the reduction of identifiable bone fragments after the completion of the cremation process to unidentifiable bone fragments by manual means. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Pulverization: means the reduction of identifiable bone fragments after the completion of the cremation and processing to granulated particles by manual or mechanical means. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Recourse: An arrangement in which a bank retains, in form or in substance, any credit risk directly or indirectly associated with an asset it has sold (in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles) that exceeds a pro rata share of the bank's claim on the asset. If a bank has no claim on an asset it has sold, then the retention of any credit risk is recourse. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Refrigeration facility: means a facility that is operated independently of a funeral establishment, crematory, or direct disposal establishment, that maintains space and equipment for the storage and refrigeration of dead human bodies, and that offers its service to funeral directors, funeral establishments, direct disposers, direct disposal establishments, or crematories for a fee. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Removal service: means any service that operates independently of a funeral establishment or a direct disposal establishment, that handles the initial removal of dead human bodies, and that offers its service to funeral establishments and direct disposal establishments for a fee. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Rules: refers to rules adopted under this chapter unless expressly indicated to the contrary. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Scattering garden: means a location set aside, within a cemetery, that is used for the spreading or broadcasting of cremated remains that have been removed from their container and can be mixed with or placed on top of the soil or ground cover or buried in an underground receptacle on a commingled basis and that are nonrecoverable. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• service: means any service offered or provided in connection with the final disposition, memorialization, interment, entombment, or inurnment of human remains or cremated remains. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Temporary container: means a receptacle for cremated remains usually made of cardboard, plastic, or similar material designated to hold the cremated remains until an urn or other permanent container is acquired. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• veteran: means a person who served in the active military, naval, or air service and who was discharged or released under honorable conditions only or who later received an upgraded discharge under honorable conditions, notwithstanding any action by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs on individuals discharged or released with other than honorable discharges. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• writing: includes handwriting, printing, typewriting, and all other methods and means of forming letters and characters upon paper, stone, wood, or other materials. See Florida Statutes 1.01