My computer at work crashed today. About 99.44% of my work is done on the computer, so I was at a complete loss while Drew was trying alternately to breathe life back into it as well as get me set up on a different computer.
Taking a break from pacing, I picked up the Texas Lawyer publication that circulates through the office, and read a very interesting article about a lawsuit that concerned a cemetery. Back in 1955, a fellow sold 200 acres of land in Chambers County to a petroleum company. The deed contained a reservation of the surface estate of a one-acre family cemetery that dated back to 1898.
Targa, the company that now owns the property, wants to exhume and move all the human remains to a perpetual care cemetery, claiming that the little family cemetery has been abandoned. The lower court ruled in favor of the oil company, but the family appealed to the 14th Court of Appeals in Houston. The Texas Historical Commission filed an amicus brief and argued that according to Texas Administrative Code Sec. 22.1, an abandoned cemetery is "a non-perpetual care cemetery containing one or more graves and possessing cemetery elements for which no cemetery organization exists and which is not otherwise maintained by any caretakers." [That's the part I didn't know.]
The kicker, as stated in the Appeals Court's opinion, was that the oil company itself had been maintaining the cemetery, as evidenced by photos it had filed that showed the cemetery "is surrounded by a fence, headstones are clearly visible, and the area within is maintained by Targa." Therefore, the cemetery "does not meet the Commission's definition of an abandoned cemetery." Levandovsky v. Targa Resources Inc., et al.
Here's to the little guys! Let's all help keep an eye on those little family cemeteries dotted across the Texas landscape, and not let them fall prey to the big companies!
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