NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY
1965 SESSION

CHAPTER 719
SENATE BILL 233

AN ACT RELATING TO THE OPERATION OF FUNERAL ESTABLISHMENTS.

The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:

Section 1. Article 13, Chapter 90 of the General Statutes is hereby amended by adding after G.S. 90-210.16 a new Section to be numbered G.S. 90-210.17 and to read as follows:
"§ 90-210.17.  (a) The term 'Board' as used herein means the North Carolina State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors and the term 'funeral establishment' means a place of business used in the care and preparation for burial or transportation or other disposal of dead human bodies, or any place or premises at or from which any person or persons shall represent himself or themselves or hold out himself or themselves as being engaged in the profession of funeral directing.
(b)	No person, firm, partnership, corporation or association shall operate or maintain a funeral establishment without first obtaining a registration certificate as herein provided. Each funeral establishment shall be under the immediate and personal supervision, direction, management and control of a person or persons licensed as a funeral director under the terms of this Article.
(c)	Each funeral establishment shall apply to the board for a registration certificate on forms to be provided by the board and shall report under oath any facts requested by the board as evidence that such establishment meets the requirements of this Article. Said application shall be accompanied by a fee not in excess of twenty-five dollars ($25.00), with such fee to be determined by the board. Upon the filing of a proper application, meeting all legal requirements, accompanied by the required fee, the board shall issue to the establishment the registration certificate applied for. Each holder of a registration certificate shall annually on or before the first day of January submit to the board an application for renewal of such certificate together with a fee not in excess of twenty-five dollars ($25.00), with such fee to be determined by the board.
(d)	All funeral establishments receiving a registration certificate under the provisions of this Article shall register the fact at the office of the Board of Health of the county in which such funeral establishment is located, and where there is no Board of Health, with the Clerk of the Superior Court in the county in which the establishment is located, and every funeral establishment shall display said registration certificate in a conspicuous place in the establishment.
(e)	The board may suspend or revoke any registration certificate for a funeral establishment or may place the holder thereof on a term of probation if the board shall find any of the following:
(1)	That the funeral establishment fails to comply with the provisions of this Article;
(2)	That the manager, an agent or employee of the funeral establishment has violated any State law or municipal ordinance or regulation, any of which relate to the handling, custody, care or transportation of dead human bodies; provided, however, the provisions of this subsection shall not be applicable to speeding offenses or other minor traffic violations.
(3)	That the funeral establishment fails to comply with any law relative to sanitation, health and the protection of the public from contagious and infectious diseases with respect to the handling of dead human bodies.
(f)	All proceedings for the suspension or revocation of a registration certificate shall be in accordance with the Uniform Revocation of Licenses Act."
Sec. 2.  All laws and clauses of laws in conflict with this Act are hereby repealed.
Sec. 3.  This Act shall be in full force and effect on and after January 1, 1966.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 28th day of May, 1965.