Grace v. Repose Mausoleums, Inc.

The Repose Mausoleums, Inc., having been formed as a business corporation with wide and general commercial powers is not, and cannot claim the rights of, a cemetery corporation. “A cemetery for the burial of the dead,” says Mr. Justice Gray, in Close v. Greenwood Cemetery, 107 U. S. 474, “ if not a strictly charitable use, is in some respects a pious and public use,” and this is the view of the legislature. The Rural Cemetery Act (Laws of 1847, chap. 133) authorized not less than seven persons to incorporate with not less than six nor more than twelve trustees. A corporation so formed (§ 4)…