NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1977 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 648

HOUSE BILL 1356

 

 

AN ACT TO AMEND THE PROVISIONS FOR FINAL DISPOSITION OR TRANSPORTATION OF DECEASED MIGRANT FARM WORKERS.

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

 

Section 1.  Article 14C of Chapter 90 of the General Statutes is rewritten to read as follows:

"ARTICLE 14C.

"Final Disposition or Transportation of Deceased Migrant Farm Workers and Their Dependents.

"§ 90-216.12.  Final disposition or transportation of deceased migrant farm workers and their dependents. — (a) Notwithstanding any other provisions of the law, any person having knowledge of the death of a migrant agricultural worker or a worker's dependent shall without delay report the fact of such death to the department of social services in the county in which the body is located together with any information he may possess respecting the deceased including his identity, place of employment, permanent residence, and the name, address and telephone number of any relative and interested person. The county department of social services shall within a reasonable time of receiving such report transmit to the Department of Human Resources notice of the death and any information pertaining thereto. The Department of Human Resources shall, upon notification, make every reasonable effort to inform the nearest relative and any interested person of said death.

(b)        In the event that the identity of the person cannot be determined within a reasonable period of time, or in the event that the body is unclaimed 10 days after death, the body shall be offered to the Commission of Anatomy and, upon its request, shall be delivered to the commission as per the provisions of G.S. 90-216.6(a). In the event that the Commission of Anatomy does not request an unclaimed body offered it or the estate, and in the event that the relatives or other interested persons claiming the body are unable to provide for the final disposition of said migrant agricultural worker or his dependent, the Department of Human Resources is authorized, empowered, and directed to arrange for the final disposition of the deceased.

(c)        In the event that the estate, relatives or interested persons are able to provide for final disposition but are unable to effect the transportation of the body of the deceased to his legal residence or the legal residence of the relatives or interested persons, the Department of Human Resources is authorized, empowered, and directed to allocate a sum of not more than two hundred dollars ($200.00) to defray said transportation expenses.

Payments made from the funds appropriated under this subsection shall be made in accordance with rules and regulations promulgated by the Department of Human Resources.

For purposes of this Article, a migrant agricultural worker is any worker who moves in response to the demand for seasonal agricultural labor.

For purposes of this Article, dependent means child, grandchild, spouse or parent of a migrant agricultural worker who moves with said migrant agricultural worker in response to the demand for seasonal agricultural labor."

Sec. 2.  This act shall become effective July 1, 1977.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 21st day of June, 1977.