[HISTORY: Derived from Art. III of Ch. XXV of the Charter
and Ordinances, 1974, of the City of Buffalo. Amendments noted where
applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Infectious diseases — See Ch. 158.
No death certificate shall be valid unless signed by a medical
examiner or a regularly licensed physician.
It shall not be lawful for any person to allow the dead and
unembalmed body of any human being to remain unburied for a longer
period than three days without special permission from the Health
Commissioner; nor shall any dead body be left unburied more than six
days without such permission; nor shall any person allow the dead
body of any human being to be exposed or retained for any time whatever
to the peril or prejudice of the lives or health of any person.
It shall be the duty of every person to report to the Department
of Health the discovery or knowledge by him of the whereabouts of
any dead human being or any parts thereof if there is any reason to
believe that the death or place of such body is not properly known.
A.
No person shall dispose of any dead body of a human being by interment,
cremation or any other means without a permit from the Health Commissioner
nor in any manner than in accordance with the rules of the Department
of Health.
B.
No sexton, undertaker nor any other person shall assist, countenance
or allow, directly or indirectly, the disposition of any human body
for which permit has not been given.
In case any person dies without medical attendance or any physician
refuses to sign a certificate, or in case it is impossible to obtain
a physician, the diagnostician of the Department of Health shall investigate
the matter and report to the Department and be authorized to issue
a death certificate. In case of a person dying from violence or under
suspicious circumstances, the case is to be referred to the County
Medical Examiner.
No undertaker shall use any vehicle other than a hearse for the conveyance of the body of any person dead from any of the infectious diseases mentioned in § 158-1 of Chapter 158; nor shall the body of a person dead of any such infectious disease be carried into any church, hall or public place or otherwise exposed to view; provided, however, that this provision shall not apply to cases of tuberculosis, typhoid fever, puerperal septicemia or malarial fever. No body of a person dead from any infectious disease, except syphilis and gonorrhea, shall be brought into the City without a special permit from the Health Commissioner.
No common carrier or person in charge of any vessel, car or
conveyance of any kind, public or private, shall convey or allow to
be conveyed the body of any dead human being without a permit from
the Health Commissioner nor of any person dead of any infectious disease
except in strict accordance with the rules of the Health Department.
In case of death from any infectious diseases, such as smallpox,
scarlet fever, diphtheria, any form of croup, yellow fever, typhus,
leprosy, Asiatic cholera, bubonic plague or epidemic cerebrospinal
meningitis, it shall be the duty of the undertaker in charge of the
body of the deceased to cause such body to be buried within 24 hours
after death; and the undertaker in charge of the funeral of any person
dying of any such disease must so conduct such funeral that it shall
be absolutely private. Any undertaker in charge of such funeral shall
properly disinfect every conveyance used at such funeral before the
same shall be used again and shall also disinfect, to the satisfaction
of the Health Commissioner, any and every article of whatever nature
which it was necessary for him to use in the house where such death
occurred; and he shall not use or permit to be used at such funerals
any unnecessary articles, such as rugs, flowers or plants, in such
house, unless such articles so employed shall immediately thereafter
be destroyed by fire.
No disinterment shall be made except between sunrise and sunset.
This section applies to removals from one grave to another in the
same cemetery as well as to another cemetery.
No cemetery vault other than established for the reception of
dead human bodies shall be established without the authority of the
Department of Health. Plans of mortuaries, etc., must be approved
by the Department of Health.
When human remains are buried in a grave, the last and topmost
casket or coffin shall be at least two feet below the level of the
existing established grade.
No person in charge of any cemetery or receptacle for the dead
shall receive for burial or disposition any body without an accompanying
certificate or permit from lawful authority.
A.
The person in charge of the place of burial, cremation or other disposition
shall keep a record of all bodies interred or otherwise disposed of
on the premises under his charge, in each case stating the name of
each deceased person, place of death, date of burial or disposal and
name and address of the funeral director or undertaker, which record
shall at all times be open to official inspection.
B.
He shall also cause every receiving vault within the City to be cleared,
cleaned and disinfected before the first day of May each year.
C.
He shall not permit any dead body to be kept in any receiving vault
over 72 hours between May 1 and November 1.
No body shall be removed from this City by public conveyance,
unless prepared in accordance with the specifications adopted by the
Department of Health.
It shall be the duty of any person having charge of articles
used at funerals of persons dead of infectious or contagious diseases
to have the same properly disinfected before being used again.
No person shall bury any body of a human being in any place
other than a registered burial ground.
No person or association shall use or make overground vaults,
tombs or other receptacles for the dead, except when made of stone
with stone covering, cemented on, unless the coffin or casket is permanently
and hermetically sealed in a metal case.
The undertaker shall be entitled to demand and receive from
the physician in attendance a death certificate, and in case of his
refusal, shall report to the Department of Health.
It shall not be lawful to disinter or expose the remains of
a person who shall have died from an infectious or contagious disease
within 10 years after burial, nor to disinter or expose any human
remains within one year after burial, without a permit from the Commissioner
of Health. Such disinterment or exposure shall only be made under
the supervision of the Commissioner of Health and pursuant to such
rules and regulations as may be adopted by the Department of Health.
It shall be the duty of the undertaker in charge, if a person
dies of infectious or contagious diseases, except syphilis and gonorrhea,
if such body is sent out of the City limits, to make affidavit when
the body is presented for shipment that it will be prepared according
to the rules of the Department of Health.
All dead bodies brought to the City from a distance must be
buried by permit from the Health Commissioner, which the undertaker
must first obtain before burial.
The undertaker in charge shall cause every article used in preparation
for burial of bodies of persons dying of infectious or contagious
disease to be disinfected before removal from the house.
The undertaker in charge of bodies of persons dying from smallpox,
diphtheria, yellow fever, scarlet fever, typhus or other pestilential
diseases shall at once cause the body to be disinfected, wrapped in
a sheet, wet with a solution of bichloride of mercury, 1:500, and placed immediately in a coffin, the inner surface of
which must be lined with raw cotton, and made absolutely tight and
not reopened. No body of a person dead of infectious or contagious
diseases shall be placed in iceboxes.
No permit for removing any dead body out of Town shall be given until the undertaker shall certify to compliance with the provisions of § 116-5.
No body of a person having died from a contagious disease, except
syphilis and gonorrhea, shall be removed from the City of Buffalo,
except when taken in a hearse for burial in a cemetery adjacent to
the City, unless said body is heremetically sealed in a metallic case;
and no such body shall be brought into or through Buffalo, except
in a hearse direct from the place of death adjacent to the City for
burial in the City or in an immediately adjacent cemetery, unless
said body is similarly enclosed.
All reports required to be made to the Department of Health
shall be made upon forms or blanks prescribed or furnished by the
Department and shall be written in ink, and the nomenclature used
shall be that adopted by the Department of Health.
It shall be the duty of every sexton or other person having
charge of any burying ground, cemetery or vault, as aforesaid, who
shall receive any such permit, to preserve and return the same to
the Registrar before 12:00 noon of the Monday following the day of
burial. No sexton, undertaker or other person shall bury or cause
to be buried the body of any deceased person within the City of Buffalo
except in such grounds as are now known and used as burial grounds
or such as shall hereafter be by law designated and authorized to
be used as such.
Whenever a permit for burial is applied for in case of death without the attendance of a physician or it is impossible to obtain a physician's certificate, it shall be the duty of the diagnostician of the Department of Health to investigate the cause and circumstances of such death and to make and sign the certificate required by § 116-5 of this chapter; and if not satisfied as to the cause and circumstances of such death, he shall refer the case to one of the Medical Examiners of the County for investigation and report.
Whenever any person shall die within the City of Buffalo it
shall be the duty of the physician attending such person during his
or her last illness, or of the County Medical Examiner when the case
comes under his notice and jurisdiction, to furnish and deliver to
the undertaker or other person superintending the burial of said person
(or file directly in the office of the Registrar) a certificate, duly
signed, setting forth as far as the same can be ascertained the name,
age, color, sex, nativity (giving state or country), occupation, whether
married or single, duration of residence in the City of Buffalo, cause,
date and place of death (giving street and number) and duration of
last sickness of such deceased person; and it shall be the duty of
the undertaker or other person in charge of the burial of said deceased
person to state in said certificate the date and place of burial and
to file the same in the office of the Registrar, aforesaid, within
24 hours after said death, provided that in case of death from smallpox,
scarlet fever, malignant diphtheria or other pestilential diseases,
said certificate shall be so made and filed immediately after such
death. The permit for burial of all persons must, where practicable,
be procured from the Registrar at least 24 hours before the hour fixed
for burial.
Whenever any person shall die of smallpox or varioloid, it shall
be the duty of the sexton, undertaker or other person having charge
of the body of such deceased person to report to the Department of
Health immediately and before burying such body. It shall not be lawful
for any sexton, undertaker or other person having charge of such body
to take the same into a church or other public place for the purpose
of holding funeral or other ceremonies, but such body shall be conveyed
by the most direct route from the house wherein such person died to
the place of interment.
The provisions of this chapter relating to special permits and
to metallic caskets on removal from the City shall not apply to burials
to be made at the Pine Hill Cemetery, in the Town of Cheektowaga,
adjoining the City line, nor to burials to be made at Lime Stone Cemetery,
in the Town of West Seneca, also adjoining the City line.
Every person who acts as sexton or undertaker in the City of
Buffalo or who has charge or care of any vault, tomb, burying place
or cemetery for the reception of the dead or where the bodies of any
human beings are deposited shall cause his or her name and residence
and the name of his or her charge and duties to be registered with
the Department of Health.
A.
No captain, agent or person having charge of or attached to any ferry
boat, sailing or other vessel nor any person in charge of any vehicle
or public or private conveyance shall convey or allow to be conveyed
therein, by any means aforesaid, nor shall any person convey or allow
to be carried or conveyed in any manner, from or in the City of Buffalo,
the dead body of any human being or any part thereof without a permit
therefor from the Department of Health; and the proper coupon for
that purpose attached to such a permit, when issued, shall be preserved
and returned to the Department in accordance with its regulations
by the proper officer or person on such boat or vessel and the proper
person in charge of any train of cars or vehicles on which any such
body may be carried from said City.
B.
Any undertaker wishing a police escort for a funeral burial procession may apply to the Police Department Traffic Bureau for such escort. Funeral escort service will be provided based on the availability of police officers on that particular day. Fees for such service will be as outlined in Chapter 175, Fees.
[Added 5-28-1992, effective 7-1-1992]
All vaults must be inspected after May 1, each year, and oftener
if necessary. The Health Commissioner shall have the power to close
or cause to be altered any vault or other receptacle for the dead
if, in his judgment, such action is for the interest of public health.
No permits will be granted for the burial upon returns of stillbirths
unless said returns are certified by a registered physician.
Every permit for burial of a dead body shall be immediately
returned to the Registrar of Vital Statistics when demand for the
same is made.
No undertaker shall hold any funeral from any house that is
placarded for infectious diseases otherwise than in accordance with
the ordinances governing the burials of persons dead of contagious
or infectious diseases.
No person shall embalm any dead body without a written certificate
from the attending physician that there are no facts attending the
illness and death of the person that would preclude such embalming
from a medicolegal standpoint. Provisions of this section shall not
apply to cases of death from injury or accident.
No person, company or corporation shall embalm the body of a
deceased person unless he or it shall have first conformed to the
rules and regulations prescribed by the Department of Health and procured
a permit from the Health Commissioner, nor shall such permit be granted
until all the rules and regulations of the Department of Health or
the Commissioner have been complied with.
