S.L. 1965-639

NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1965 SESSION

CHAPTER 639

HOUSE BILL 590

AN ACT TO ESTABLISH THE COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER SYSTEM AND TO ABOLISH THE OFFICE OF CORONER IN CERTAIN COUNTIES.

The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:

Section 1. A new Chapter is hereby inserted in the General Statutes of North Carolina to read as follows:

Chapter 152A

County Medical Examiner

152A-1. Appointment. The board of county commissioners shall appoint a qualified and practicing physician as medical examiner for the county to serve at the pleasure of the board of county commissioners and until his successor has been appointed and qualified. Each county medical examiner may appoint, with the approval of the county board of commissioners, one or more qualified and practicing physicians as assistant county medical examiners, to serve at the pleasure of the county medical examiner who makes the appointment.

152A-2. Duty to Notify the Medical Examiner. Upon the death of any person, apparently by the criminal act or default, or apparently by suicide, or suddenly when apparently in good health, or while an inmate of any penal or correctional institution, or under any suspicious, unusual or unnatural circumstances, the medical examiner of the county in which the body of the deceased is found shall be notified by the physician in attendance, by any law enforcement officer having knowledge of such death, by the funeral director, by a member of the family of the deceased, by any person present, or by any person having knowledge of such death. No person shall disturb the body at the scene of death until authorized by the county medical examiner.

A similar procedure shall be followed upon discovery of anatomical material suspect of being or determined to be a part or parts of a human body.

152A-3. Duties of County Medical Examiner. Upon receipt of notice as specified in 152A-2, the county medical examiner shall make a physical and medical examination of the body or parts of a body which may be found, make prompt inquiries regarding the cause and manner of death, reduce his findings to writing, and make a full report thereof to the solicitor of the Superior Court of the district in which the county lies, to the sheriff of the county, and to the chief law enforcement officer of the incorporated municipality wherein the body of the deceased was found: Provided that copy of said report shall be furnished to any other interested persons upon order of a court of record after need therefor has been shown. The county medical examiner may delegate his duties in a particular case to an assistant county medical examiner, or may perform the same jointly with him.

152A-4. When Autopsies and Other Pathological Examinations to be Performed. If, in the opinion of the medical examiner of the county wherein the body or anatomical material is first found under any of the circumstances set forth in 152A-2, it is advisable and in the public interest that an autopsy or other pathologic study be made, or if an autopsy or other pathologic study is requested by the Superior Court solicitor or by any Superior Court judge having authority in the judicial district in which the county lies, such autopsy or pathological study shall be made by a competent pathologist designated by the county medical examiner.

In any case of death under circumstances set forth in 152A-2 where a body shall be buried without a medical examination being made as specified in 152A-3, or in any case where a body shall be cremated except in compliance with the provisions of this Article, it shall be the duty of the medical examiner of the county in which the body is buried or was cremated, upon being advised of such facts, to notify the Superior Court solicitor who shall communicate the same to any resident or assigned judge of the Superior Court, and such judge may order that the body or the remains be exhumed and an examination or autopsy performed thereon by a competent pathologist appointed by the judge upon recommendation of the notifying county medical examiner. The pertinent facts disclosed by the examination or autopsy shall be communicated to the Superior Court judge who ordered it, for such action thereon as he, or the court of which he is judge, deems proper. A copy of the report of the examination or autopsy findings and interpretations shall be filed with the Superior Court solicitor: Provided that a copy of said report shall be furnished to any other interested person upon order of a court of record after need therefor has been shown.

152A-5. Autopsy Fees. For each autopsy performed by reason of referral by a medical examiner or by others empowered by this Chapter to make such references, the pathologist designated shall receive a fee to be approved by the board of county commissioners, after consultation with the county medical examiner, and to be paid by the county.

For each report made on pathological anatomical materials submitted to him, the designated pathologist shall receive a fee to be approved by the board of county commissioners, after consultation with the medical examiner, and paid by the county. Such fees shall constitute full compensation of the designated pathologist for services performed under this Article.

152A-6. When Medical Examiner's Permission Necessary Before Embalming, Burial and Cremation.

(a) In any case where it is the duty of the county medical examiner to view the body and investigate the death of a deceased person as herein provided, it shall be unlawful to embalm the said body until the written permission of the county medical examiner has first been obtained, and such county medical examiner shall make the certificate of death required for a burial-transit permit, stating thereon the name of the disease causing death; or if from external causes,

(1) the means of death, and

(2) whether (probably) accidental, suicidal, homicidal, and shall, in any case, furnish such information as may be required by the State Register of Vital Statistics in order properly to classify the death.

(b) It shall be unlawful to embalm or to bury a dead body, or to issue a burial-transit permit, when any fact within the knowledge of, or brought to the attention of the embalmer, the funeral director, or the local registrar of vital statistics charged with the issuance of burial-transit permit, is sufficient to arouse suspicion of crime in connection with the death of the deceased, until the written permission of the county medical examiner has first been obtained.

(c) No burial-transit permit for cremation of a body shall be issued by the local registrar charged therewith and no cremation of a body shall be carried out until the county medical examiner shall have certified in writing that he has made inquiry into the cause and manner of death and is of the opinion that no further examination concerning the same is necessary.

(d) In cases of death occurring without medical attendance, other than cases otherwise covered in this Section, it shall be the duty of the funeral director or person acting as such to notify the medical examiner of such death, if the board of county commissioners has designated the medical examiner to investigate and certify the cause of death under G. S. 130-47, and the board is hereby authorized to designate the medical examiner to perform such duties. If the board of county commissioners has not so designated the medical examiner to investigate and certify the cause of death, the funeral director or person acting as such shall proceed under G. S. 130-47 to notify the local registrar of vital statistics.

152A-7. Post-mortem Examination and Remains. All post-mortem examinations under this Chapter shall be held and done under and subject to the control and direction of the county medical examiner, who is hereby also vested with primary control over remains, subject to the provisions of this Chapter.

152A-8. Compensation. For his services the county medical examiner shall receive such compensation as the board of county commissioners may fix.

152A-9. Coroner Abolished. The office of coroner is abolished. Wherever the statutes impose a duty on the coroner for the service or execution of process, in the event the sheriff is a party or interested, such process shall be directed to the sheriff of an adjoining county, and wherever the statutes impose a duty on the coroner to act when the office of sheriff is vacant, such duty shall be performed by the chief deputy of the sheriff causing the vacancy.

152A-10. Non-applicability of Certain Statutes. Chapter 152 and Article 21 of Chapter 130 of the General Statutes shall not apply to counties wherein this Chapter is effective.

152A-11. Adoption of Chapter. This Chapter shall become effective in a county upon the passage by the board of county commissioners of a resolution of adoption. A resolution of adoption may be passed either upon the occurrence of a vacancy in the office of coroner, in which case the Chapter shall become effective immediately, or on or before February 1 of the year in which a regular election for the office of coroner is scheduled to take place, in which case the Chapter shall become effective upon the expiration of the term of the incumbent coroner.

152A-12. Applicability. This Chapter shall apply only to Alamance, Catawba, Durham, Forsyth, Granville, Iredell, Mecklenburg, Nash, New Hanover, Polk, Rockingham, Vance, and Watauga Counties.

Sec. 2. All laws and clauses of laws in conflict with this Act are hereby repealed.

Sec. 3. This Act shall become effective upon its ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 20th day of May, 1965.