CHAPTER 31
TITLE TO CEMETERY IN WILMINGTON
AN ACT TO AUTHORIZE THE SECRETARY OF STATE TO CONVEY TITLE TO REAL ESTATE LOCATED AT 12TH AND MADISON STREETS IN THE CITY OF WILMINGTON TO "CATHEDRAL CEMETERY COMPANY OF WILMINGTON, DELAWARE".
WHEREAS, Rebecca Gibbons and others, as described and set forth in a certain Indenture bearing date the 1st day of May, A. D. 1852, and recorded in the Office for the Recording of Deeds &c., in and for New Castle County, and State of Delaware, at Wilmington, in Deed Record K, Volume 6, page 508 &c., did by their said Indenture convey to the Right Reverend John N. Newmann, Roman Catholic Bishop of Philadelphia, certain real estate in the City of Wilmington, New Castle County, and State of Delaware, bounded in part by Twelfth, Jefferson and Madison Streets, and more particularly described in said Indenture, under and subject to such uses and trusts as are set forth in said Indenture; and
WHEREAS, George Jack and Georgiana Jack, his wife, by Indenture bearing date the 15th day of October, A. D. 1870, and recorded in the Office for the Recording of Deeds &c., in and for New Castle County, and State of Delaware, at Wilmington, in Deed Record E, Volume 9, Page 376 &c., did convey to the Right Reverend Thomas A. Becker, D. D., Bishop of Wilmington, other real estate now in the City of Wilmington, New Castle County, and State of Delaware, and adjacent to the lands described in the aforementioned Indenture of Rebecca Gibbons and others, and more particularly described in the said Indenture of said George Jack and Georgiana Jack, his wife, under and subject to the uses and trusts as set forth in said Indenture; and
WHEREAS, doubt has been expressed as to the succession of ownership and to the present ownership of the real estate described in the two aforementioned Indentures, and it has been suggested that the title to the aforementioned real estate might have escheated to the State of Delaware because of the provisions of Chapter 275, Volume 11, Laws of Delaware, Revised Code of Delaware, 1935, §§ 2488, 2489, 2490 and 2491, as well as because of the provisions of §§ 112 and 113, Chapter 1, Title 27, Delaware Code of 1953; and
WHEREAS, the said real estate was used for charitable purposes and none other, viz.: as a burying ground for the use of Roman Catholics formerly of the Parish of Wilmington and later of the Diocese of Wilmington, and said real estate was continued in such use and no other until its use for interment of bodies ceased, and it has never been put to any use but the afore-described charitable use; and
WHEREAS, the use of said real estate as a burial ground has now terminated and the bodies therein interred have been or are being or will be reinterred in other cemetery grounds belonging to "Cathedral Cemetery Company of Wilmington, Delaware", a corporation organized and existing pursuant to an Act of the General Assembly, passed at Dover, March 10, 1881, the said Act being of record in the Office of the Secretary of the State of Delaware; and
WHEREAS, the said "Cathedral Cemetery Company of Wilmington, Delaware", is successor to and carries on such charitable uses and trusts relating to the burial of the dead previously exercised by the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Wilmington; and
WHEREAS, the said "Cathedral Cemetery Company of Wilmington, Delaware", is desirous of perfecting its title in the aforedescribed real estate, so that its title be perfected in order that the said corporation can convey good and clear title to said real estate free and clear of all uses and trusts and doubts, the proceeds thereof to be used in the carrying out of its corporate functions and purposes; and
WHEREAS, it may be doubtful that the Secretary of State can now convey proper title to the said corporation to said real estate as was allowed and provided by Section 5, Chapter 275, Volume 11, Laws of Delaware, Revised Code of Delaware, 1935, § 2492, NOW, THEREFORE,
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Delaware:
The Secretary of State of the State of Delaware be and he is hereby authorized and empowered to execute and deliver to the "Cathedral Cemetery Company of Wilmington, Delaware", a corporation of the State of Delaware, its successors and assigns, a complete and proper deed conveying unto the said "Cathedral Cemetery Company of Wilmington, Delaware", its successors and assigns, any and all right, title and interest in the lands described in the aforementioned Indentures which may have escheated, for any reason, to the State of Delaware, free and clear of any doubts in the title and free and clear of any uses and trusts which may have heretofore attached to said real estate.
Approved April 9, 1953.