MENU
DORCHESTER MEMORY GARDENS, INC., is organized under the laws of the State of South Carolina and operates under a perpetual charter. It is the desire of DORCHESTER MEMORY GARDENS, INC., to make the gardens a quiet, beautiful resting place for the dead where a sense of repose will be obtained by dignified landscape effects on a well maintained lawn. To secure these effects, DORCHESTER MEMORY GARDENS, INC., has spent and will continue to expend considerable sums of money, but the preservations of these effects require the cooperation of every lot owner. Everything which would mar the general beauty and harmony of the cemetery must be avoided. Peace and good order must prevail, and the sacredness of the place be maintained at all times. In order to preserve and maintain this uniformity, harmony and beauty; to provide for stability; and to safeguard the sanctity of each lot, grave, mausoleum crypt, niche, bench or other memorials against future inefficient care, the corporation reserves for itself, its successors and assigns, the right to make any and all rules, regulations, limitations, and restrictions that it may deem necessary to protect, provide for the future welfare of the gardens all of which it binds itself to do. For the mutual protection of each lot, crypt, niche or bench owner these rules and regulations are hereby adopted and all lots, crypts, niches and benches sold shall be subject to said rules and regulations, ammendments, additions, or alterations as shall be adopted by this corporation from time to time; and the reference to these rules and regulations in the deed to lots, crypts, niches and bench rites shall have the same force and effect as set forth in full therein.
I
DEFINITINONS
1-a. The term "Gardens" is hereby defined to include a burial park or burial estate for the permanent interment of human dead, crematory and columbarium as established and maintained by DORCHESTER MEMORY GARDENS, INC.
1-b. The term "Lot", "Plot", "Burial Space", shall be used interchangeably, and shall apply with like effect to one or more than one adjoining grave.
1-c. The term "Lot or Plot Owner", as herein used means any person in whose name a burial lot stands of record, as owner, in the office of the corporation and shall be construed to mean the right to use a lot as purchased from DORCHESTER MEMORY GARDENS, INC., for a consideration, for burial purposes only and under the rules and regulations as prescribed by DORCHESTER MEMORY GARDENS, INC., for such use.
1-d. The term "interment" shall mean the permanent disposition of the remains of a deceased person by burial or entombment in the mausoleum.
1-e. The term "Tablet" is hereby defined as a bronze marker set approximately level with the turf for purpose of identification.
1-f. The term "Monument" shall include tombstone or memorial of granite or marble which shall extend above the surface of the ground.
II
GENERAL SUPERVISION OF GARDENS
2-a. The Gardens is a private corporation, and reserves the right to refuse admission to anyone other than a lot or crypt owners or their immediate relations, and to refuse the use of any of the Garden's facilities, at any time, to any person or persons whom the management may deem objectionable to the interest of the Gardens.
2-b. All funerals, on reaching the Gardens shall be under the charge of the superintendent or is assistant or any other officer of DORCHESTER MEMORY GARDENS, INC.
2-c. Once a casket containing a body is in charge of the Gardens, no person or persons shall be permitted to open the casket or to touch the body without the consent of the legal representatives of the deceased, or without a court order.
III
RECORDS
3-a. The records showing lot owners and grave locations in DORCHESTER MEMORY GARDENS, INC., are in keeping with the most advanced idea of cemetery management.
3-b. The locations of all lots and graves are shown by a plat and by a system of recorded measurements from fixed and indestructible land marks. Every reasonable precaution shall be taken so in future years the exact location of any grave in the gardens can be definitely established.
IV
PERPETUAL CARE
4-a. All lots in The Gardens are sold with perpetual care. To provide for this fund at least 10% of the gross receipts from all lot and crypt sales are set aside in trust.
4-b. By a trust agreement with a reliable banking institution as Trustee of this fund, this bank is made the sole depository, has entire control of said fund and is charged with the safekeeping and investment of same.
4-c. The principal of this fund must be held intact and can never be used for any purpose other than investment by the Trustee, and the net income, only, can be used for the care and maintenance of The Gardens and for no other purpose.
V
MEANING OF PERPETUAL CARE
5-a. The general objective of the corporation is building, operating, and maintaining a modern garden-plan burial estate that will always be a beautiful memorial to the dead and a place that the living may appreciate and sacredly enjoy. Hence, the term "Perpetual Care" shall be held to mean, all general work necessary to keep the property in a presentable condition at all times. This shall include the cutting of grass at reasonable intervals; raking, cleaning, and filling, and the seeding and sodding of graves; replacement and pruning of shrubs and trees; the repair and maintenance of enclosures, buildings, drives, walks, and the different memorial gardens, to the end that said grounds shall remain and be reasonably cared for as Garden ground forever.
5-b. The term "Perpetual Care" shall in no case be construed as meaning the replacement of memorials or tablets placed upon plots; nor the maintenance or doing of any special or unusual work in the Gardens.
5-d Perpetual care is limited to the amount of work which can be done with the income from the trust funds.
VI
LOTS AND LOT OWNERS
6-a. Persons desiring to purchase lots should visit the Cemetery where the management will aid them in making a selection, and will issue a memorandum describing the lot purchased.
6-b. Before any burial is made in a plot or lot, complete payment for the plot must be made to the cemetery.
6-d. No easement or right of interment is granted to any plot owner in any road, drive, alley or walk within the Cemetery. Such road, drive, alley or walk may be used as a means of access to the Cemetery or buildings, as long as the Management devotes it to that purpose
6-e. The right to enlarge, reduce, replat or change the boundaries or grading of the cemetery, or a section or sections, from time to time, including the right to modify or change the locations of or remove or regrade roads, drives, or walks, or any part thereof is hereby reserved. The right to lay, maintain and operate, or alter or change pipe lines or gutters for sprinkling systems, drainage, et cetera, is also expressly reserved, as well as is the right to use cemetery property not sold to individual plot owners for cemetery purposes, including interment of the dead, or for anything necessary, incidental or convenient thereto. The Cemetery reserves to itself and to those lawfully entitled thereto a perpetual right of ingress and egress over plots for the purpose of passing to and from other plots.
6-f. Descriptions of lots will be in accordance with the Cemetery plats which will be kept on file and in Management's Office and at the Cemetery office.
6-g. The Management will take all reasonable precautions to protect lot owners, and property rights of plot owners, within the Cemetery from loss or damage; but the Cemetery disclaims all responsibility for loss or damage from causes beyond its reasonable control, and, especially, from damage caused by the elements, an act of God, common enemy, thieves, vandals, strikers, malicious mischief makers, explosions, unavoidable accidents, invasions, insurrections, riots, or order of any military or civil authority, whether the damage be direct of collateral other than as herein provided.
6-h. The instrument of conveyance and these Rules and Regulations and any amendments thereto constitute the sole agreement between the Cemetery and the plot owner. The statement of any employee or agent, unless confirmed in writing by the Management, shall in no way bind the Cemetery.
6-i. The corporation reserves a protectorate over each and every lot, parcel, grave or crypt sold in said Garden. That is, no lot, grave or crypt shall be molested, marred, changed, improved or bodies disinterred, without the consent of the corporation.
VII
INTERMENETS AND DISINTERMENTS GENERALLY
7-a. Besides being subject to these rules and regulations, all interments, disinterments, and removals must be made subject to the orders and laws of the properly constituted authorities of the county and state.
7-b. All interments, disinterments, and removals must be made at the time and in the manner designated and upon such charges as are fixed by the corporation.
7-c. The right is reserved by the corporation to require at least 24 hours notice prior to any interment and at least 7 days notice prior to any disinterment or removal.
7-d. The corporation reserves the right to refuse interment in any plot, and to refuse to open any burial space in any plot, except on written application by the plot owner of record, or his successor or successors in burial right, made out on blanks provided by the corporation, and duly filed in the office of the secretary of the corporation.
7-e. When instructions regarding the location of an interment space in a plot cannot be obtained, or are indefinite, or when for any reason the interment space cannot be opened where specified, the superintendent may, in his/her discretion, open it in such a location in the plot as he/she deems best and proper so as not to delay the funeral; and the corporation shall not be liable in damages for any change so made.
7-f. The corporation shall not be held responsible for any order given by telephone, or for any mistake occurring from the want of precise and proper instructions as to the particular space, size, and location in a plot or crypt where the interment is desired.
7-g. The corporation reserves, and shall have, the right to correct any errors that may be made by it either in making interments, disinterments, or removals, or in the description, transfer, or conveyance of any interment property, either by cancelling such conveyance and substituting and conveying in lieu thereof other interment property of equal value and similar location as far as possible, or as may be selected by the corporation, or, in the sole discretion of the corporation, by refunding the amount of money paid on account of said purchases. In the event such error shall involve the interment of the remains of any person in such property, the corporation reserves, and shall have, the right to remove and/or transfer such remains so interred to such other property of equal value and similar location as may be substituted and conveyed in lieu thereof.
7-h. The corporation shall be in no way liable for any delay in the interment of a body where a protest to the interment has been made, or where the rules and regulations have not been complied with. The corporation shall be under no duty to recognize any protest of interments unless they be in writing and filed in the office of the secretary of the corporation.
7-i. Not more than one body, or the remains of more than one body, shall be interred in one grave or crypt, except a mother and infant or two infants in one casket. No grave containing a body will be reopened for additional interment.
7-j. The number of interments of cremated remains shall not be greater than the number of regular interments permitted on a standard size lot and shall be spaced accordingly.
7-k. No outside wooden containers for caskets are permitted. Grave liners will be installed in concrete or steel where vaults are not used. Grave liner cost will be added to the grave opening and closing.
VII
DISINTERMENTS AND REMOVALS
8-a. Removal, by the heirs, of a body or cremated remains so that the plot or crypt may be sold for profit for themselves or removal contrary to the expressed or implied wish of the original plot owner is absolutely forbidden.
8-b. A body, or cremated remains, may be removed from its original plot or crypt to a larger or more suitable plot or crypt in the Gardens, when there has been an exchange or purchase for that purpose.
8-c. The corporation shall exercise the utmost care in making a removal, but it assumes no liability for damage to any casket, burial case, or urn in making said removal.
IX
CONTROL OF WORK BY CORPORATION
9-a. All grading, landscape work and improvements of any kind, and all care on plots, shall be done, and all trees and shrubs and herbage of any kind shall be planted, trimmed, cut or removed, and all openings and closings of plots, and all interments, disinterments, and removals shall be made only by the corporation or under supervision and control.
9-b. If any trees or shrubs situated on any plot or adjacent thereto, by reason of growth of their roots and branches or in any other way, become detrimental to lot or adjacent lots, walks or drives or dangerous or inconvenient to passers-by, the superintendent shall have the right to enter upon the said lot and remove the said trees and shrubs or such parts thereof as are thus detrimental, dangerous and inconvenient.
9-c. All foundations shall be installed, and all memorials set by the corporation, the charges for which shall be reasonable and uniform, and the corporation shall assume responsibility for the proper construction of such foundations and the proper setting of such monuments.
9-d. Foundation and setting charges must be paid for in advance. Payment with order, and exact dimensions of tablet shall be given the corporation, at least 15 days prior to date foundation is required.
X
MONUMENTS, TABLETS AND ORNAMENTS
10-a. Stone or monumental works will not be permitted on a lot until the lot is fully paid for, and Dorchester Memory Gardens, Inc., reserves the right to refuse permission to erect any monumental work not in keeping with the good appearance of the grounds.
10-b. No monumental work of any kind or description, including but not limited to headstones, markers, tablets, coping or lot enclosures, shall be erected, and placed or altered on any lot until the proposed specifications, exterior color and finish, plot plan (showing the proposed location) and erection schedule for such items have been approved in writing by Dorchester Memory Gardens, Inc. or by its duly appointed representatives. Refusal of approval may be based upon any ground including purely aesthetic conditions, which in the sole and uncontrolled discretion of the corporation or its duly appointed representatives shall seem sufficient. No alterations in the approved monumental work shall be made without like approval by the corporation or it's duly appointed representatives.
10-c. No ornaments, except as hereinafter excepted, shall be placed within the gardens, and, if so placed, the corporation reserves the right, to immediately remove the same.
10-d. Potted natural plants will be permitted upon lots and graves at Easter, Memorial Day and other similar occasions. If not called for within four days after such occasions, they will be removed. Upon application to the superintendent, potted natural plants may be allowed upon a grave or lot at the anniversary of the death or other special date for four days. At all other times potted plants will be removed from the lot at the time of mowing or trimming of the grave.
10-f. Natural flowers, baskets, designs and frames shall be removable from grave or lot at any time in the discretion of the superintendent. Upon written request made by the owner, or legal representative of owner of such grave or lot, which said request shall be made at the time of, or within forty-eight hours after interment, any particular baskets, designs or frames may be held for such owner or legal representative, but not exceeding one week, and if not called for and carried away during said period, said flowers, baskets, designs or frames shall become the property of the corporation and may be sold, destroyed, or otherwise disposed of without incurring any liability whatever to donors, said grave owner or to such owner's legal representative.
10-g. The care of grass, including seeding, weeding, watering and mowing will be done by the corporation.
10-h. The care of shrubbery includes the planting, pruning, fertilizing and replanting of the same.
XI
SUPERINTENDENT TO HAVE CHARGE OF CHAPEL
11-a. All arrangements for any service in the chapel, including handling and disposition of flowers, must be under the supervision and control of the superintendent and his assistants.
XII
GRATUTIES
12-a. No person, while employed by the corporation, shall receive any free gratuity or commission, except from the corporation, either directly or indirectly.
XIII
CONDUCT OF PERSONS WITHIN THE GARDENS
13-a. A strict observance of the properties due in respect to the sacred nature of the gardens whether they be lot owners, relatives, friends or others.
13-b. The superintendent, or other authorized agent for the corporation, shall have charge of the grounds and buildings, and, at all times, shall have supervision and control of all persons in the Garden, including the conduct of funerals, employees, plot owners, and visitors.
13-c. The superintendent, or other authorized agent of the corporation, is empowered to enforce all rules and regulations, and to remove from the property of the corporation any person violating the rules, or, in his discretion, in any other manner acting with impropriety.
13-d. The superintendent, or other authorized agent of the Corporation, may deny admittance to the property of the corporation, any person, who may, in the discretion of the superintendent, act with impropriety while within the gardens.
13-e. Such rules of propriety shall include, but in no manner be limited to the following:
The Garden will be open to visitors at the times set from time to time by the Corporation. Permission to enter the Gardens at any other time must be obtained from the Superintendent.
Children under sixteen years of age will be admitted only when accompanied by an adult.
Persons with refreshments will not be admitted. Dogs or other animals will not be allowed in the Gardens.
Firearms will be allowed in the Cemetery only at Military funerals.
Visitors are required to use the walks and drives and are forbidden to litter, to trespass on cemetery lots, or pick any flowers (either wild or cultivated) or injure any shrub, tree or plant, or mar or deface any monument, stone or structure in the Cemetery.
XIV
DESCENT OF TITLES
14-a. The Laws of the State of South Carolina, subject to the within restrictions, govern the descent of title to cemetery lots as well as other matters pertaining to assignments, conveyances, devises, trust deeds and inalienability. The management will assist any lot owner who desires information or advice on questions pertaining to his lot.
14-b. The title to a lot invests in the owner's right to use such lot for burial purposes only for themselves or for their heirs at law.
14-c. Lot owners cannot resell or transfer their lots to any person or persons whomsoever other than Dorchester Memory Gardens, Inc., its successors or assigns. Such lots as the owner may desire to dispose of may be, at its option, purchased by the corporation at the original price paid for said lot, or listed for sale by the corporation. The Corporation, however, assumes no obligation for making satisfactory sale of such lot. Any profits derived from the resale of the lot by the Corporation are to accrue to the benefit of the perpetual trust endowment fund.
14-d. The Corporation may, at its option, and upon written request, consent in writing, to a direct conveyance from a lot owner to another specified individual, if the Corporation in its discretion, is of the opinion that such conveyance is not made for the purpose of profit, and will be in the interest of the Garden.
14-e. Only such persons whose name appear on the corporation records will be recognized as owners or part owners of lots. In the case of death of a lot owner, when the lot is disposed of by will, a certified copy of the duly probated will of the record lot owner must be delivered to the Corporate secretary before the change in ownership is recognized. If the deceased lot owner left no will a certified copy of the proof of heirship made in the Probate Court must be presented.
14-f. Joint tenancy. In all conveyances to two or more persons as joint tenants each joint tenant shall have a vested right of interment of his or her remains in the plot so conveyed. Upon death of a joint tenant, the title to the burial plot theretofore held in joint tenancy immediately vest in the survivor or survivors, subject to the vested right of interment for the remains of the deceased joint tenant owner. An affidavit by any competent person setting forth the fact of death of one joint tenant and establishing the identity of the surviving join tenant named in the deed when filed with the Corporation, shall be its complete authority to permit the use of the unoccupied portion of such plot in accordance with the directions of the surviving joint tenant or his successor in interest. A vested right of interment as in these rules provided may be waived and shall be terminated upon the interment elsewhere of the remains of a person having a prior vested right of interment thereto under this provision. No such vested right of interment shall be construed to give any person the right to have his or her remains interred in any interment space in which the remains of any deceased person having a prior vested of interment therein shall have been placed, or to give to any person the right to have the remains of more than one deceased person interred in a single interment space in violation of the rules and regulations of the Gardens in which such interment space is located.
14-g. Inalienable by death of owner. Whenever an interment of a member of the family of the record owner or of a relative of a member of said family, or of the remains of the record owner, is made in a burial plot in his will by a specific devise thereof, or by a written declaration filed and recorded in the office of the corporation, such burial plot thereby becomes inalienable and shall be held as the family burial plot of the owner.
In said family burial plot one grave may be used for the owner's interment, one for the surviving spouse, if any, of the owner, who has a vested right of interment therein and in those remaining, if any, the parents and children of said deceased owner in order of need may be interred without the consent of any person claiming any interest therein shall go in the order of need first, to the spouse of any child of said record owner and second, in the order of need to the next heirs at law of said owner as specified by the statutes of descent or the spouse and any parent, child, or heir of such deceased owner having a right of interment in such plot may waive such right in favor of any other relative or spouse of such relative of such deceased owner, or spouse of such deceased owner, and upon such waiver the body of the person in whose favor the waiver is made may be interred therein.
14-h. If no interment shall have been made in a burial plot which has been transferred by deed to an individual owner or if all remains of deceased persons previously interred therein shall have been lawfully removed therefrom, upon the death of the owner, unless such owner shall have disposed of such burial plot in his will by a specific devise thereof or by a written declaration filed and recorded in the office of the corporation, the whole of said burial plot subject to the right of interment of the descendant therein shall descend in regular line of succession to their heirs at law of the owner; provider, that one grave shall be reserved to the surviving spouse of the owner. An affidavit by a competent person setting forth the face of the death of the owner and the name of the person or persons entitled to use such property, in accordance with these rules, shall be complete authority to the corporation to permit the use of unoccupied portions of such plot by the person or persons entitled thereto.
14-i. When there are several owners of a burial plot, or of right of interment therein, such owners may designate one or more persons to represent said plot and file written notice or of written objection to its so doing, the corporation shall not be liable to any owner for interring or permitting an interment therein upon the request or direction of any registered co-owner of such plot.
XV
CHANGE OF ADDRESS OF LOT OWNERS
15-a. It shall be the duty of the lot owner to notify the corporation of any change in his post office address. Notice sent to a lot owner at the last address on file in the office of the secretary of the corporation shall be considered sufficient and proper legal notification.
XVI
MODIFICATIONS AND AMMENDMENTS
16-a. Special cases may arise in which the literal enforcement of a rule may impose unnecessary hardship. The corporation, therefore, reserves the right, without notice to make exceptions, suspensions, or modifications in any of these rules and regulations when, in its judgment the same appear advisable; such temporary exception, suspension, or modification shall in no way be construed as affecting the general application of such rule.
16-b. The corporation may, and it hereby expressly reserves the right, at any time or times, to adopt new rules and regulations or to amend, alter and/or repeal any rule, regulation and/or article, section, paragraph and/or sentence in these rules and regulations.
16-c. All rules and regulations are for reference and guidance in carrying out and maintaining the high standards of the Gardens and Gardens service, the principle upon which Dorchester Memory Gardens was established. All rules, whether written or not, shall give full consideration to the lot or crypt owner at all times, when in the judgment of the corporation same does not conflict with the general plan, or affect the beauty of the property or the rights of the other lot or crypt owners.
