Sources from several states recently contacted this office about a new policy implemented by a national cemetery corporation. That cemetery corporation began requiring a “Memorial Survey, Layout, Inspection, and Assessment Fee” for monuments that are to be purchased from third party monument companies. The cemetery corporation advised that they were blending the administrative, staffing, and service costs into the retail price for monuments. In other words, the monument company would be required to use the cemetery’s staff for all essential functions related to the delivery and setting of a grave monument. The problem with this policy is that a Federal court found such practices to be a restraint of trade and issued rules to protect consumers against such practices.
Almost 40 years ago, the Eighth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals established a set of rules for cemeteries in Rosebrough Monument Co. V Memorial Park Cemetery Association (736 F.2d 441). Within the cemetery industry these are referred to as the Rosebrough Monument Rules. The Rosebrough Monument Rules do not permit a fee to be charged for the inspection, survey or flagging of the consumer’s grave site. Further, the Rules state that a cemetery may not require that its employees layout the foundation or supervise the monument installation without appropriate cause. Appropriate cause would be multiple errors by a specific monument company. One company’s errors cannot be used to impose a requirement on all third party monument companies.
Cremation trends are resulting in fewer burials at cemeteries, and as a consequence, cemeteries are looking for ways to counter competition. Imposing packaging requirements is not a valid strategy for keeping the competition out of the cemetery’s gates.