Washington State

Office of the Attorney General

Attorney General

Bob Ferguson

AGO 1956 NO. 343 >

A document described as a least agreement, if it is intended as a lease, which provides for the construction of a mausoleum by an unincorporated company in a cemetery owned by a third class city and which provides for the sale of the crypts by the company as a cemetery authority is invalid, because it attempts to authorize the operation of a private cemetery during the period of the lease by individuals who cannot qualify under the law as a cemetery authority.  If it is intended as a construction contract, the agreement is invalid because it violates the provisions of RCW 68.24.140.  In either event it is invalid because it attempts to create on behalf of the city an endowment care fund which the city is not authorized by law to maintain.