Cemetery Consultants, Inc. v. Tidewater Funeral Directors Ass'n, Inc., 771178
| Decision Date | 20 April 1979 |
| Docket Number | No. 771178,771178 |
| Citation | 219 Va. 1001,254 S.E.2d 61 |
| Parties | CEMETERY CONSULTANTS, INC., T/A Rosewood Memorial Park v. TIDEWATER FUNERAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION, INC. Record |
| Court | Virginia Supreme Court |
Harry J. Hicks, Virginia Beach, for appellant.
William R. O'Brien, Virginia Beach (Richard G. Brydges, Brydges, Hudgins, Ege, Burt & O'Brien, Virginia Beach, on brief), for appellee.
Before I'ANSON, C. J., and CARRICO, HARRISON, COCHRAN, HARMAN, POFF and COMPTON, JJ.
Tidewater Funeral Directors Association, Inc. (TFDA), appellee herein, filed a bill of complaint against appellant, Cemetery Consultants, Inc., t/a Rosewood Memorial Park (Rosewood), seeking to enjoin the enforcement of Rosewood's rules and regulations governing the delivery of burial vaults to the cemetery and the imposition of a $15 charge for the installation and sealing of all burial vaults used in the cemetery unless the vaults were purchased from Rosewood. The chancellor, after an Ore tenus hearing, held, Inter alia, that TFDA had standing to institute this suit and that the rules, regulations, and charges imposed by Rosewood were unreasonable and unenforceable.
Rosewood, a privately owned corporation maintaining a cemetery in the City of Virginia Beach, sells burial plots and rights of sepulcher to the public and provides care for the plots and cemetery environs both before and after burial. By letter dated August 4, 1976, Rosewood notified the funeral directors and vault dealers operating within its trading area that as of August 15, 1976 all vaults in Rosewood would be installed and sealed only by Rosewood's trained and experienced cemetery personnel. The funeral directors and burial vault dealers were directed to deliver each vault to the cemetery's service area where Rosewood's personnel would pick up the vault, place it in the ground and later seal it. They were further informed that a charge of $15 would be made for the rendition of these services, but that such charge would be assessed against the owners of the rights of sepulcher (lot owners) and not against the funeral directors or vault dealers.
TFDA is a corporation organized by licensed funeral directors in the Tidewater Virginia area.
Rosewood contends (1) that TFDA lacked standing to challenge its rules, regulations and the fee imposed; and (2) that under its contracts with the owners of the lots, Rosewood had the right to adopt regulations and charges which are fair and reasonable.
We agree...
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