Estate Planning

The Price for Spending Eternity with Marilyn Monroe

By Hull & Hull LLP

Earlier this month, Elsie Poncher posted on eBay her late husband's crypt for sale. The unique feature about the crypt is its location directly above the crypt of Hollywood icon, Marilyn Monroe in Westwood Village Memorial Park cemetery. Mrs. Poncher decided to sell the valuable crypt and move her husband's remains to another part of the cemetery in order pay the $1.6 million mortgage on her Beverly Hills home.
 
Last week, someone purchased the crypt with a winning bid of $4.6 million. That bid has since fallen through with the bidder unable to pay but there were a number of other multi-million dollar bids which may now become the winning bid.
 
In Ontario, the Cemeteries Act prohibits the private resale of burial plots or crypts. When someone purchases a burial plot, they receive interment rights in perpetuity, not property rights. The property rights belong to the cemetery and if required, transfer to a third party requires the consent of the cemetery and the cemetery maintains the right to buy back the interment rights.
 
However,  in the United States many states do not have similar legislation and some suggest that the reselling of burial plots have increased in recent economic times .
 
Thanks for Reading,
 
Diane Vieira

Full post as published by Toronto Estate Law Blog on September 01, 2009 (boomark / email).