37A.1 - VETERANS COMMEMORATIVE PROPERTY -- PENALTY.
37A.1 VETERANS COMMEMORATIVE PROPERTY -- PENALTY.
1. For purposes of this chapter, unless the context otherwise
requires:
a. "Department" means the Iowa department of veterans
affairs.
b. "Veteran" means a deceased person who served in the armed
forces of the United States during a war in which the United States
was engaged or served full-time in active duty in a force of an
organized state militia, excluding service in the national guard when
in an inactive status.
c. "Veterans commemorative property" means any memorial as
defined in section 523I.102, including a headstone, plaque, statue,
urn, decoration, flag holder, badge, shield, item of memorabilia, or
other embellishment, that identifies or commemorates any veteran or
group of veterans, including any veterans organization or any
military unit, company, battalion, or division.
d. "Veterans organization" means the grand army of the
republic, sons of union veterans of the civil war, sons of
confederate veterans, veterans of foreign wars, disabled American
veterans, united Spanish war veterans, the Jewish war veterans of the
United States, inc., the Catholic war veterans, inc., American
legion, American veterans of World War II, Italian American war
veterans of the United States, inc., or other corporation or
association of veterans.
2. A person who owns or controls property where any veterans
commemorative property has been placed shall not sell, trade, or
transfer any part of such veterans commemorative property unless the
department authorizes the person to do so. The department may
authorize the sale, trade, or transfer based upon the following
criteria:
a. The veterans commemorative property is at reasonable risk
of physically deteriorating so that it will become unrecognizable as
identifying or commemorating the veteran or group of veterans
originally identified or commemorated.
b. The veterans commemorative property is proposed to be
sold, traded, or transferred to a suitable person that will preserve
the current condition of the veterans commemorative property and
place it in a suitable place that will commemorate the veteran or
group of veterans.
c. The person needs to sell, trade, or transfer the veterans
commemorative property to ensure that sufficient funds are available
to suitably maintain the cemetery where the veterans commemorative
property is placed, and the specific lot, plot, grave, burial place,
niche, crypt, or other place of interment of such veteran or group of
veterans.
d. The veterans commemorative property that is to be sold,
traded, or transferred will be replaced at its original site by a
fitting replacement commemorative property, monument, or marker that
appropriately identifies and commemorates the veteran or group of
veterans.
e. If the person reasonably believes that the veterans
commemorative property to be sold, traded, or transferred was donated
by a veterans organization, the veterans organization consents to the
sale, trade, or transfer of the veterans commemorative property.
f. If the person is not the owner of the veterans
commemorative property that is to be sold, traded, or transferred,
the person is authorized by the owner of such veterans commemorative
property, or by operation of law other than this section, to sell,
trade, or transfer the veterans commemorative property and to retain
and use the proceeds of the sale, trade, or transfer.
3. A person who engages in the sale, trade, or transfer of
veterans commemorative property without the authorization of the
department pursuant to this section is guilty of a simple
misdemeanor.
4. The department may adopt rules in accordance with chapter 17A
to administer this chapter. Section History: Recent Form
2006 Acts, ch 1107, §2; 2008 Acts, ch 1067, § 1
See also §35B.16A