Michigan Laws 328.228 – Prohibited conduct; rules; administrative action
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(1) Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, a person selling or offering to sell merchandise or funeral or cemetery services, whether a registrant or not, shall not do any of the following:
(a) Solicit a specific person for the purpose of providing merchandise or funeral or cemetery services for a prospective contract beneficiary knowing that the death of the prospective contract beneficiary has already occurred or is probably imminent.
Terms Used In Michigan Laws 328.228
- 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
- Cemetery: means 1, or a combination of more than 1, of the following:
(i) A burial ground for earth interments. See Michigan Laws 328.213Cemetery burial vault or other outside container: means a box or container used solely at the place of interment to permanently surround or enclose a casket and to support the earth above the casket after burial. See Michigan Laws 328.213 Cemetery services: means cremations, grave openings and closings, and installation of grave memorials. See Michigan Laws 328.213 Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed. Contract beneficiary: means an individual specified or implied in a prepaid contract for whom the funeral or cemetery services or merchandise shall be performed or furnished after death. See Michigan Laws 328.213 Department: means the department of labor and economic growth. See Michigan Laws 328.213 Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another. Grave memorial: means a stone or other structure or item used for the purpose of memorializing a decedent and placed on or in proximity to a place of burial, interment, or entombment of a casket, catafalque, or vault or on or in proximity to a place of inurnment. See Michigan Laws 328.214 Income: means the money earned by the investment of the principal, including, but not limited to, interest, dividends, and gains or losses on the sale of, deposit of, or exchange of, property using invested principal amounts. See Michigan Laws 328.214 merchandise: means both of the following:
(i) Cemetery burial vaults or other outside containers, grave memorials, and urns. See Michigan Laws 328.214Person: means an individual, group of individuals, sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability company, association, corporation, government agency, cemetery, or a combination of these legal entities. See Michigan Laws 328.215 Prepaid contract: means a contract requiring payment in advance for funeral or cemetery services or merchandise, physical delivery and retention of which would occur after death under a guaranteed price contract or a nonguaranteed price contract. See Michigan Laws 328.215 Principal: means the money or other consideration actually deposited in the escrow or trust accounts required by this act. See Michigan Laws 328.215 Registrant: means a person who has registered with the department pursuant to section 6. See Michigan Laws 328.215 state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, shall be construed to extend to and include the District of Columbia and the several territories belonging to the United States; and the words "United States" shall be construed to include the district and territories. See Michigan Laws 8.3o Urn: means a container used to preserve the ashes of a dead human body. See Michigan Laws 328.215
(b) Make a false or misleading statement, oral or written, regarding the sale of merchandise or funeral or cemetery services pursuant to a prepaid contract or regarding the rights or obligations of any party or prospective party to a prepaid contract for the purpose of inducing a person to purchase the merchandise or funeral or cemetery services or a prepaid contract.
(c) Advertise or offer merchandise or funeral or cemetery services for sale before the death of a prospective contract beneficiary in a manner which is false, misleading, deceptive, or unfair.
(d) Fail to refund principal or principal and income paid for a prepaid contract in violation of this act.
(e) Refuse the use of merchandise bought from another vendor or discriminate by price, burial fee, or otherwise for not purchasing merchandise from or under the direction of the funeral establishment or cemetery. This subdivision does not prohibit a cemetery from adopting and enforcing consistent rules and regulations to be followed by both the cemetery and outside vendors as to the quality, size, shape, type, installation, and maintenance of a grave memorial or a cemetery burial vault or other outside container or urn, except that such regulations may not limit as to supplier or vendor.
(f) Require the purchase of a cemetery burial vault or other outside container from a particular person as a condition to burial in a cemetery in this state. However, this subsection does not limit the right of a cemetery to require the use of a cemetery burial vault or other outside container.
(g) Violate this act or rules promulgated under this act.
(2) A registrant or a person acting on behalf of a registrant, including an agent or employee of a registrant, shall not do any of the following:
(a) Practice fraud, or deception in obtaining registration.
(b) Refuse to disclose books and records required to be maintained and disclosed under this act.
(3) The director of the department may promulgate rules regulating the solicitation of prepaid contracts by registrants to protect against solicitations which are intimidating, vexatious, fraudulent, or misleading or which take unfair advantage of a person’s ignorance or emotional vulnerability.
(4) Any administrative action brought under this act shall be in compliance with the administrative procedures act of 1969, 1969 PA 306, MCL 24.201 to 24.328.