Pitcairn v. Homewood Cemetery

Citations

• 229 Pa. 18
• 77 A. 1105
• 1910 Pa. LEXIS 546

Syllabus

<p>Cemeteries — Estate in lots — Fee simple estate — Deed.—Base or determinable fee — Location of mausoleum — Managers—License—Easement.</p> <p>1. Where, by the terras of purchase of a cemetery lot, the use of the lot is limited to the burial of the dead, and the purchaser is forbidden to erect improper improvements, or to transfer or assign the lot without the approval of the cemetery company, and holds the lot subject to the rules and regulations of the board of managers, and there is no restriction upon the power to devise the lot by will or preventing its descent according to the laws of inheritance, the estate in the lot vesting in the purchaser is an estate in fee with restrictions, as to alienation and use, but is not a determinable or base fee, nor is it a mere license or easement.</p> <p>2. In such case the inherent discretionary powers of the board of managers cannot be asserted to prevent the location by the owner of a mausoleum on one side of the lot instead of in the center, in the absence of a prohibition in the deed or of a by-law, rule or regulation giving the board control over such locations.</p>