AGO 1993-005.

• Case Date: February 26, 1993
• Court: Ohio

Ohio Attorney General Opinions 1993. AGO 1993-005. February 26, 1993OPINION NO. 1993-005The Honorable P. Randall Knece Pickaway County Prosecuting Attorney P.O. Box 631 Circleville, Ohio 43113Dear Prosecutor Knece: You have requested an opinion concerning the legality and procedures involved with the establishment of a private cemetery on privately-owned land. Your request states that members of the Amish community in Pickaway County have inquired about the proper procedure for establishing, on land owned by them, a private burial ground to be used exclusively by members of their community. Your letter indicates that the burial ground would be located in a township that has no zoning regulations; it is assumed that the burial ground would not be located within a municipal corporation. For purposes of this opinion, it is understood that the Amish community constitutes a "religious society," as that term is commonly used. See, e.g., R.C. 517.10, 1721.03, 1721.21(G); State v. Fulton, 57 Ohio St. 3d 120, 566 N.E.2d 1195, cert. denied, 112 S.C. 98 (1991). Because of the general nature of your inquiry, this opinion contains a general overview of the applicable Ohio statutory scheme. Statutes Providing for Regulation of Cemeteries and Related Activities In general, a private person or religious society may use its land for such purposes as it chooses, including the burial of the dead, subject to applicable state or local regulation. See, e.g., State ex rel. Stuart v. Meyer, 19 Ohio App. 436 (Lucas County 1925). The Ohio Revised Code contains a variety of statutes governing different types of cemeteries. A number of those statutes are clearly not applicable to the type of cemetery that you have described. See, e.g., R.C. 517.01-.20 (township cemeteries); R.C. 759.01-.26 (cemeteries of municipal corporations and cemeteries within municipal corporations); R.C. 759.27-.40 (union cemeteries); R.C. 1721.21 (requiring the establishment of a fifty thousand dollar endowment care fund by a person desiring to operate a cemetery that is organized or developed after July 1, 1970, but providing an exception for any cemetery that "is owned and operated entirely and exclusively by churches, religious societies, established fraternal organizations, municipalities, or other political subdivisions of the state, or a national cemetery"). Recently-enacted legislation requires a person, church, religious society, established fraternal organization, or political subdivision that owns, operates, or maintains a cemetery to register the cemetery with the Division of Real Estate in the Department of Commerce. R.C. 4767.02-.04; see Sub. H.B. 733, 119th Gen. A. (1992) (effective Oct. 28, 1992, with certain provisions effective on other dates). An exception to the...