Opinion Number

Dear Representative McVea:

You have asked for an opinion from this Office regarding the rights of people to access isolated cemeteries that lie on land that the people no longer own or never did own. As is more fully set forth below, it is the opinion of this Office that cemeteries, being a unique type of property, should be accessible to the descendants and friends of those buried therein, regardless of the current ownership of the surrounding and underlying property.

The Louisiana jurisprudence clearly permits access to isolated cemeteries.1 In the case of In re St. James Methodist Church…