Bill
HB 2331
Allows coroners to dispose of unclaimed cremated remains after 3 years with notice and reimbursement rules; outlines disposal options, veteran handling, and civil immunity.
Status
- Introduced: February 3, 2025
- Sponsor: House Committee on Federal and State Affairs (requested by Sedgwick County)
- Referred to: Committee on Federal and State Affairs (committee hearings held 2/25/2025; committee report recommended passage)
Purpose
- To create a clear statutory process allowing a district coroner to relinquish or dispose of unclaimed cremated remains after a specified retention period, establish notice and reimbursement rules, set acceptable methods of final disposition (including special handling for veterans), and limit civil liability for coroners who follow the process.
Key provisions and procedural timeline
- Amends K.S.A. 22a-215 (and repeals the existing section), adding procedures specific to cremated remains.
- Retention period: A coroner may relinquish cremated remains if no one has claimed them during the three years after death (or any longer preservation period required by law).
- Public notice: The coroner must publish notice in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where the death occurred stating the remains will be disposed unless claimed within 30 days of publication.
- Claimants and reimbursement: If an authorized person claims the remains, that person must reimburse the coroner for cremation costs and any applicable coroner fees.
- Methods of disposition (if unclaimed): burying the remains in a church or cemetery plot or scatter garden; placement in a tomb, mausoleum, crypt, columbarium, or other permanent non‑accessible chamber.
- Veterans: If the decedent was a veteran, the coroner must relinquish the remains to the Director of the Kansas Commission of Veteran’s Affairs Office (now the Kansas Office of Veterans Services), the director’s designee, or to a national cemetery. The bill allows that the coroner need not determine veteran status if informed or later discovered the decedent was not a veteran or did not want veteran recognition.
- Refusal to accept remains: Continues current law requiring coroners to notify KU Medical Center and arrange delivery, cremation, or burial if immediate family/next of kin refuse to accept remains.
- Property found with body: If property has insubstantial commercial value, the coroner may destroy or otherwise dispose of it; neither the coroner nor the county is liable for such disposition.
Liability and penalties
- Civil immunity: The coroner and the county are immune from liability for costs or damages arising from disposition carried out under the bill except for acts amounting to gross negligence or willful misconduct.
- Criminal provision retained: A coroner who, over the protest of immediate family/next of kin, delivers a decedent’s body for final disposition to a particular embalmer/funeral establishment is guilty of a class B nonperson misdemeanor and may forfeit office (retained from current statute).
Potential fiscal impacts
- State/local agencies (Board of Mortuary Arts; Kansas Association of Counties) indicated no expected fiscal effect.
- Kansas Office of Veterans Services reported it was contacted once in the last three years to claim unclaimed veteran remains and that, if coroners pass costs to the agency under this statute, per‑instance costs could range roughly $800–$3,000 (depending on required medical exams). The fiscal note finds no reflected impact in the FY 2026 Governor’s Budget Report.
Context and rationale
- Supporters (including Sedgwick County forensic officials) noted counties hold large inventories of unclaimed cremated remains (Sedgwick County reported >500 boxes), and the bill provides a lawful process for disposition while protecting coroners acting in good faith.
Effective date
- The introduced language states the act takes effect upon publication in the statute book.
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
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