At the hearing authorized by § 57-39.4, the proofs of the parties or the petition in the event of the failure of the recorded owner or his heirs to appear and answer shall be presented, and the court shall determine if the unoccupied cemetery lot set forth in the petition has been abandoned. If the court enters a decree adjudging such lot to be abandoned, it shall further provide that the city, town, corporation, association, or trustees having ownership and charge of the cemetery containing any such lot shall have the right to sell such lot and to use the proceeds for the purposes provided by this article.
1962, c. 264; 1964, c. 111; 2020, c. 669.
Structure Code of Virginia
Title 57 - Religious and Charitable Matters; Cemeteries
§ 57-22. Conveyance of land to trustees or local governing body for cemetery use
§ 57-23. Appointment, change or removal of trustees
§ 57-24. Powers and duties of trustees
§ 57-24.1. Trustee for purpose of suit
§ 57-25. Condemnation of land for cemeteries
§ 57-26. Restrictions as to location of cemeteries and as to quantity of land
§ 57-27. City of Richmond may prohibit burials in certain cemeteries
§ 57-27.2. Correction of interment errors
§ 57-27.3. Authorization for interment
§ 57-28. Cities and counties may establish
§ 57-30. Funds from sale of lots and for perpetual upkeep
§ 57-32. Who may hold such property
§ 57-34. Amount to defray original cost not limited
§ 57-35. Trusteeship for administering funds for perpetual care
§ 57-35.36. Cemeteries owned by localities; good faith effort required prior to interment
§ 57-35.37. Sale of cemeteries owned by a locality; required notice to descendants of original owner
§ 57-36. Abandoned or previously unidentified graveyards may be condemned; removal of bodies
§ 57-37. Costs of suits, removal and reinterment; how surplus above costs disposed of
§ 57-38. Exemption from §§ 57-36 and 57-37
§ 57-39. Proceedings for removal of remains and sale of land vacated
§ 57-39.1. Improvement of abandoned and neglected graveyards
§ 57-39.1:1. Recovery of abandoned interment rights; procedure; rights of owner of record
§ 57-39.2. Reversion of unoccupied cemetery lots in cities and certain towns; rebuttable presumption
§ 57-39.3. Proceedings; determination of abandonment
§ 57-39.4. Notice to owner of record; publication
§ 57-39.5. Judicial determination; conveyance of title
§ 57-39.6. Sale of abandoned cemetery lot
§ 57-39.7. Applicability; abandonment determination limited in certain circumstances
§ 57-39.19. Application of §§ 54.1-2818.1 through 54.1-2818.3
§ 57-39.21. Duty to file declaration of land use restriction
§ 57-39.22. Certain representations unlawful; perpetual care trust fund required
§ 57-39.23. Change of address required from owner of burial right