§ 56-54. Sickness or death of poor stranger.

A.  It shall be the duty of the overseers of the poor, on complaint made to them that any person not an inhabitant of their county is lying sick therein or in distress, without friends or money, so that he will likely suffer, to examine into the case of such person and grant such temporary relief as the nature of the same may require; and if any person shall die within any county, who shall not have money or means necessary to defray his funeral expenses, it shall be the duty of the overseers of the poor of such county to employ some person to provide for and superintend the burial of such deceased person.  Public cemeteries shall provide a burial plot at no cost at the request of the overseers of the poor or the person employed by the overseers of the poor to provide for and superintend the burial.  Public cemeteries shall also provide the service of opening and closing the grave for the purpose of interring the remains of the poor or indigent person.  The overseers of the poor of each county shall establish the necessary and reasonable expenses of the opening and closing services which shall be paid by the county treasurer upon the order of such overseers.

B.  As used in this section, "public cemeteries" means cemeteries located in any county with a population of three hundred thousand (300,000) or more, according to the latest Federal Decennial Census, which sell burial plots to the general public and which are exempt from taxation under the laws of this state.  "Public cemeteries" shall not include any municipal, fraternal, religious, rural, community, township, state, county or nonprofit cooperative cemeteries, or free community burial grounds.

R.L. 1910, § 4548.  Amended by Laws 1993, c. 2, § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1993.