local registrar shall then forthwith transmit such certificate to the state registrar, retaining a copy thereof on file in his office.

§ 8. Undertaker responsible for certificate of death. Duty of undertaker. The undertaker, or person acting as undertaker, shall be responsible for obtaining and filing the certificate of death with the regis trar and securing a burial or removal permit prior to any disposition of the body. He shall obtain the personal and statistical particulars required from the person best qualified to supply them over the signature and address of his informant. He shall then present the certificate to the attending physician, if any, or to the health officer or coroner, as directed by the registrar, for the medical certificate of the cause of death and other particulars necessary to complete the record, as specified in the preceding section. And he shall then state the facts required relative to the date and place of burial over his signature and with his address, and present the completed certificate to the registrar within the time limit, if any, designated by the local board of health for the issuance of a burial or removal permit. The undertaker shall deliver the burial permit to the sexton or person in charge of the premises before interring the body, or attach it to the box containing the corpse, when shipped by any transportation company, to accompany same to destination, when it shall be accepted by the sexton as authority for the interment of the body.

§ 9. Local registrar to supply blanks. Defects in returns. Deaths from contagious diseases. It shall be the duty of each local registrar to supply to any persons requiring them, blank forms of certificates prepared and furnished by the board of supervisors of the county. He shall carefully examine each certificate when presented for record to see that it has been made out in accordance with the provisions of this act, and the instructions of the state registrar, and if any certificate is incomplete or unsatisfactory, it shall be his duty to call attention to the defects in the return and to withhold issuing the burial or removal permit until they are corrected. He shall then number them in consecutive order, beginning with number one for the first death in each calendar year, and sign his name as registrar in attest of the date of filing in his office. If the certificate is properly executed and complete, he shall then issue a burial or removal permit to the undertaker; provided, that in case the death occurred from some disease that is held by the state board of health to be infectious, contagious, or communicable and dangerous to the public health, no permit for the removal or other disposition of the body shall be granted by the registrar except under such conditions as may be prescribed by the state and local boards of health. He shall also make a complete and accurate copy of each certificate registered by him, upon a form identical with the original certificate, to be filed and permanently preserved in his office as the local record of such death, in such manner as directed by the state registrar. He shall, on or before the fifth day of each month, transmit to the state registrar all original certificates registered by him during the preceding month. If no deaths occurred in any month he shall, on or before the fifth day in any month, report that fact to the state registrar in such manner as the state registrar shall direct. [Amendment approved March 15, 1907. Stats. 1907, p. 298.]

§ 10. Wording of permit. If the interment or other disposition of the body is to be made in the registration district in which the death occurred, or in a contiguous registration district in the same or an adjoining county, the wording of the burial permit may be limited to a statement by the registrar, and over his signature, that a satisfactory certificate of death having been filed with him as required by law, permission is granted to inter, remove or otherwise dispose of the body of the deceased, stating the name, age, sex, and cause of death and other necessary details upon the form prescribed by the state registrar. In case the interment or other disposition of the body is to be made in some registration district not contiguous to that in which the death occurred, a complete copy of the certificate of death shall be attached to and made a part of the removal permit issued by the registrar of the district in which the death occurred. [Amendment approved March 15, 1907. Stats. 1907, p. 298.]

§ 11. Duty of sexton or other person in charge of burial ground. No sexton or person in charge of any premises in which interments are made shall inter or permit the interraent of any body unless it is accompanied by a burial, removal, or transit permit as herein provided. Each sexton or person in charge of any burial ground shall indorse upon the permit the date of interment, over his signature, and shall return all permits, so indorsed, to the local registrar of his district within one day from the date of interment. He shall also keep a record of all interments made in the premises under his charge, stating the name of the deceased person, place of death, date of burial, and name and address of the undertaker, which record shall at all times be open to public inspection.

§ 12. State registrar to prepare blank forms for all registrars. The state registrar shall prepare a sample form and blank for all registrars for use in registering, recording and preserving the returns or in otherwise carrying out the purposes of this act, and shall prepare and issue such detailed instructions as may be required to secure the uniform observance of its provisions and the maintenance of a perfect system of registration. No other forms of blanks shall be used than those prescribed by the state registrar. He shall carefully examine the certificates received monthly from the local registrars, and if any such are incomplete or unsatisfactory he shall require such further information to be furnished as may be necessary to make the record satisfactory. All physicians, informants, or undertakers connected with the case, and all other persons having knowledge of the facts, are hereby required to furnish such information as they may possess regarding any death, upon demand of the state registrar, in person, by mail, or through the local registrar. He shall further arrange, bind and permanently preserve the certificates in a systematic manner, and shall prepare and maintain a comprehensive index of all deaths registered, showing the name of deceased, place and date of death, number of certificate, and the volume in which it is contained. He shall inform all registrars what diseases are to be considered as infectious, contagious, or communicable, and dangerous to the public health, as decided by the state board of health, in order that when deaths occur from such diseases proper precautions may be taken to prevent the spreading of dangerous diseases, and all rules and regulations made by him for carrying out

and enforcing the purposes of this act shall, when promulgated, have the same force and effect as if enacted by law.

§ 13. When facts are not correctly stated, duty of registrar. Whenever it may be alleged that the facts are not correctly stated in any certificate of death theretofore registered, the local registrar shall require an affidavit under oath to be made by the person asserting the fact, to be supported by the affidavit of one other credible person having knowledge of the facts, setting forth the changes necessary to make the record correct. Having received such affidavits, the local registrar shall file them and shall then draw a line through the incorrect statement or statements in the certificate, without erasing them, and make the necessary corrections, noting on the margin of the certificate his authority for so doing, and transmit the affidavits, attached to the original certificate, when making his regular monthly returns to the state registrar. If the correction relates to a certificate previously returned to the state registrar, the local registrar shall transmit the affidavit forthwith to the state registrar. If the correction is first made upon the original certificate on file in the state bureau of vital statistics, the state registrar shall transmit a certified copy of the original certificate, corrected as above, to the local registrar, who shall thereupon substitute such certified copy for the copy of the certificate in his records. All such corrections and marginal notes referring to them shall be legibly written in ink, typewritten or printed. [Amendment approved March 15, 1907. Stats. 1907, p. 298.]

§ 14. Fee of local registrar. Fees for reports. Warrants for fees, how payable. Fees of subregistrars. Each local registrar shall be entitled to be paid the sum of not exceeding twenty-five cents for each death certificate properly and completely made out and registered with him, and by him returned to the state registrar on or before the fifth day of the following month, which sum shall cover and include the making out of the burial permit and the copy of the certificate to be filed and preserved in his office. And in case no deaths were registered during any month, the local registrar shall be entitled to a sum not exceeding twenty-five cents for each report to that effect, promptly made in accordance with the directions of the state registrar: provided, however, that all such compensation for such services shall be fixed by the board of supervisors, city council, trustees or other governing body of such county, city and county, city or town, constituting such registration district.

All amounts payable to registrars under the provisions of this act shall be paid out of the funds provided by the supervisors, council, trustees, or other governing body of such county, city and county, city or town, constituting a primary registration district, upon warrants dawn by the local auditor or other proper local officer of such county, city and county, city or town, which warrants shall specify the number of certificates properly registered and also the number of reports promptly returned where no deaths are registered, with the amount claimed to be due for each: provided, however, that a warrant shall not be issued to any local registrar, or if issued shall not be paid, where notice is previously given by the state registrar to the auditor, treasurer or other proper officer of such county, city and county, city or town constituting such registration district, that the local registrar

claiming any fee has failed to comply with the rules and regulations of the state bureau of vital statistics and the instructions of the state registrar.

Each subregistrar shall be entitled to be paid the sum of not exceeding fifteen cents for each death certificate properly and completely registered with him, and by him returned to the local registrar before the fifth day of the following month. All amounts payable to subregistrars shall be paid to them by the local registrars appointing them from the amounts received by the local registrars as hereinbefore provided. [Amendment approved March 15, 1907. Stats. 1907, p. 299.]

§ 15. Certified copy of death record. Searching files. The state registrar or local registrar shall, upon request, furnish any person a certified copy of the record of any death registered under provisions of this act, for the making and certification of which he shall be entitled to a fee of fifty cents to be paid by the applicant. And any such copy of the record of a death, when certified by the state registrar, statistician or deputy statistician or chief clerk to the state board of health, and under the seal of said board, or by the local registrar, to be a true copy thereof, shall be prima facie evidence in all courts and places of the facts therein stated. For any search of the files and records, when no certified copy is made, the state registrar or local registrar shall be entitled to a fee of fifty cents, to be paid by the applicant, for each hour or fractional part of an hour employed in such search. And the state registrar and local registrar shall each keep a full and correct account of all fees received by him under these provisions. Such money so received by the state registrar shall be deposited with the state treasurer, who shall credit the amount to the fund provided and to be used for the payment of the traveling and contingent expenses of the state board of health. The money so collected by the local registrar shall be by him paid into the city, county, or city and county treasury, as the case may be. [Amendment approved March 7, 1911. Stats. 1911, p. 287.]

§ 16. Physicians and undertakers to register with local registrar. Rules furnished by local registrars. Every physician and undertaker, residing in, at the date of this act or thereafter establishing a residence in, any registration district, shall forthwith register his or her name, address, and occupation, with the local registrar of the district in which he or she resides, and they shall thereupon be furnished by the registrar a copy of this act and such rules, regulations, and instructions as may be prepared by the state registrar with relation to their duties under this act.

§ 17. Neglect of attending physicians, undertakers, registrars, common carriers, etc. Penalty for violation of act. If any physician who was in medical attendance upon any deceased person at the time of death shall neglect or refuse to make out and deliver to the undertaker, sexton, or other person in charge of the interment, removal, or other disposition of the body, upon request, the medical certificate of cause of death hereinbefore provided for, or shall willfully or knowingly make a false certification of the cause of death in any case, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.

If any undertaker, sexton, or other person acting as undertaker, shall inter, remove, or otherwise dispose of the body of any deceased person

without having received a burial or removal permit as herein provided, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.

Any registrar, deputy registrar or subregistrar who shall neglect or fail to enforce the provisions of this act in his district, or shall neglect or refuse to perform any of the duties imposed upon him by this act or by the instructions and directions of the state registrar, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.

And any person or persons who shall violate any of the provisions of this act, or shall willfully neglect or refuse to perform any duties imposed upon them by the provisions of this act, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.

Any transportation company or common carrier transporting or carrying, or accepting through its agents or employees for transportation or carriage, the body of any deceased person without an accompanying permit, issued in accordance with the provisions of this act, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not less than fifty nor more than two hundred dollars.

§ 18. Local registrars charged with enforcement of law. Local registrars are hereby charged with the strict and thorough enforcement of the provisions of this act in their districts under the supervision and direction of the state registrar. They shall make an immediate report to the state registrar of any violations of this law coming to their notice by observation or upon complaint of any person or otherwise. The state registrar shall have authority to investigate cases of irregularity or violation of law, personally or by accredited representative, and all registrars shall aid him, upon request, in such investigations. When he shall deem it necessary, he shall report cases of violation of any of the provisions of this act to the prosecuting attorney or other proper officer of the county or municipality, with a statement of the facts and circumstances, and when any such case is reported to them by the state registrar all prosecuting attorneys or officials acting in such capacity shall forthwith initiate and promptly follow up the necessary court proceedings against the parties responsible for the alleged violations of law.

§ 19.

Repeal of conflicting acts. All acts and parts of acts in conflict or inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed.

TITLE 154.

DEBRIS COMMISSIONER.

ACT 2008.

To provide for the appointment, duties and compensation of a debris commissioner. [Stats. 1893, p. 339.]

Amended 1897, p. 169; 1901, pp. 284, 564; 1905, p. 142; § 6 repealed 1901, p. 564.

Repealed 1907, pp. 215, 224.

Eminent domain: See Code Civ. Proc., § 1239.