Title: An act relating to single burial use of multiple interment space.

Brief Description: Requiring disclosures for single burial use of multiple interment space.

Sponsors: Senate Committee on Labor, Commerce, Research & Development (originally sponsored by Senators Franklin and Sheldon).

Brief History:

Committee Activity: Labor, Commerce, Research & Development: 1/27/05, 1/31/05 [DPS].

Passed Senate: 2/9/05, 46-0.

SENATE COMMITTEE ON LABOR, COMMERCE, RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Majority Report: That Substitute Senate Bill No. 5182 be substituted therefor, and the substitute bill do pass.Signed by Senators Kohl-Welles, Chair; Franklin, Vice Chair; Brown, Deccio, Hewitt, Honeyford, Keiser, Parlette and Prentice.

Staff: Alison Mendiola (786-7483)

Background: Cemeteries offer burial plots which are used for single or multiple interments.

Summary of Bill: Any cemetery offering single burial use of multiple interment space, or any interment where a single burial use is offered in a burial plot where multiple interments will be made, must disclose on the interment contract that single burial use of multiple interment space means that more than one casket may be buried in layers in the same burial plot.

Appropriation: None.

Fiscal Note: Not requested.

Committee/Commission/Task Force Created: No.

Effective Date: Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Testimony For: Disclosures for multiple interments need to be made on interment contracts. The way that some contracts are written now, it is not clear to the consumer that caskets will be buried on top of one another.

Concerns: "Multiple interment" needs to be defined and the language of the bill needs to be in RCW 68.24, as this RCW applies to all cemeteries.

Testimony Against: None.

Who Testified: PRO: Loretta McNeal, private citizen. CONCERNS: TK Bentler, WA Cemetery and Funeral Association; John Forkner, Washington Cemetery and Funeral Association; and Jon Donnellan, Department of Licensing.