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UK Law - Who owns the right to a burial plot and headstone

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davedia...@gmail.com

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Oct 21, 2014, 6:17:39 PM10/21/14
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Hello,

Wondering if you can help me and my mother? Her grandparents are buried in a certain plot with headstone.

Recently, her cousin died, and his widow paid to get the deceased's name engraved on the stone.

Due to ill-feeling between my mother and the deceased's widow, she believes it is her right to get the name removed, ie. she doesn't want her cousin's (now deceased) name on it.

So, to the point, is she the rightful custodian of the headstone? (She doesn't have any deeds).

Thanks,

William Rae

Nightjar <"cpb"@

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Oct 22, 2014, 1:45:10 AM10/22/14
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AIUI, the headstone is the property of the person who is leasing the
burial plot. In the absence of the deeds, determining who that is will
probably require the help of the cemetery staff.


--
Colin Bignell

David L. Martel

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Oct 22, 2014, 1:45:31 AM10/22/14
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Will,

Exclusive rights of burial include the right to inscribe on the memorial
marker. These rights may be passed down through the generations by wills
and probate. The ownership of the grave actually rests with the city or
county, usually, and the burial rights are like a long term lease.
The rights of burial are registered with the local government. If your
wife does not have these rights then she is not in a strong position here.
She certainly must not deface the gravestone. I'd bet that the graveyard or
the stonecutter checked the registry before allowing the widow to inscribe
the cousin's name.

Good luck,
Dave M.

GB

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Oct 22, 2014, 1:47:08 AM10/22/14
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On 21/10/2014 22:54, davedia...@gmail.com wrote:
What makes you think she is or might be?

If you are simply arguing that all of the grandchildren had equal
rights, then surely the cousin and your mother are both grandchildren
and have equal rights? The cousin's rights then devolve to his heirs,
presumably the widow. If your mother then interferes with the new
wording, it may amount to criminal damage.

Whatever enmity there may be between the two ladies, I urge you to
persuade your mother not to go down this extraordinarily unkind, petty,
and legally fraught path.



>
> Thanks,
>
> William Rae
>

Derek Turner

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Oct 22, 2014, 8:27:03 AM10/22/14
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On Tue, 21 Oct 2014 14:54:05 -0700, davediamond1985 wrote:

> Wondering if you can help me and my mother? Her grandparents are buried
> in a certain plot with headstone.
<snip>
> So, to the point, is she the rightful custodian of the headstone? (She
> doesn't have any deeds).

Is this a churchyard or local-authority cemetery? The rules are very
different in churchyards (Eng. & Wales, don't know about Scot. and N.I.)

Mark Goodge

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Oct 22, 2014, 3:38:53 PM10/22/14
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On Tue, 21 Oct 2014 14:54:05 -0700 (PDT), davedia...@gmail.com put
finger to keyboard and typed:
There are no hard and fast rules, so local investigation will almost
certainly be required to establish the facts. But, typically, for municipal
(local authority) cemeteries, the following basic principles apply:

* The cemetery itself is owned by the parish (town or village) council if
there is one, or the district/borough/unitary authority if not.

* Individual burial plots are leased from the cemetery owner, typically for
100 years.

* Memorials and all other items placed on the burial plot are the property
of whoever put them there, usually the plot holder.

* As with all other property, the plot lease (and ownership of the
memorial) is transferable and heritable, so it will pass to the plot
holder's heir(s) on the death of the plot holder.

* Any rights over the headstone, therefore, belong to the owner of the plot
and the memorial.

However, it's important to remember that the owner of the lease (and
therefore the source of any inherited property rights in it) is the person
who bought it, not the person who is buried in it - unless, that is, they
bought the plot themselves in anticipation of their death.

That can, unfortunately, often create unexpected conflict between different
members of a family if there is a falling out between siblings and cousins.
If one child of the deceased buys the grave, then they own it, and no other
member of their family (other than those who subsequently inherit it) has
any rights over it. Even if the grave was originally bought by the person
who now occupies it, ownership of it may well have passed unwittingly along
with other unitemised residue of their estate - how many people, in their
will, think to stipulate who will be responsible for their grave?

Assuming that the OP's grandparents are buried in a council cemetery,
therefore, the first thing is to establish the legal owner of the plot. In
the absence of any deed of grant (which should have been kept, as it is a
legal document), the local authority will maintain a record of the
purchaser. From there it's a case of tracing its inheritance to the present
generation. But it's unlikely that both the OP's mother and her cousin have
rights over the grave of their grandparents; either one of them will have
it, or the other, or possibly (if there were other children and
grandchildren) neither.

If it's a church (CofE) cemetery then things may be somewhat more complex,
although responsibility for closed churchyards (that is, those which are no
longer accepting new burials) is usually transferred to the local authority
which will then be the authoritative source of the official records. If
it's a still-open churchyard, then the relevent parish (church, not civil)
will hold the records. If it's a non-CofE church, then the rules will be
whatever apply to that church, which could be anything.

Mark
--
Please take a short survey on smartphones: http://goodge.eu/an
My blog: http://www.markgoodge.uk

GB

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Oct 23, 2014, 1:08:50 PM10/23/14
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On 22/10/2014 20:38, Mark Goodge wrote:

> Assuming that the OP's grandparents are buried in a council cemetery,
> therefore, the first thing is to establish the legal owner of the plot. In
> the absence of any deed of grant (which should have been kept, as it is a
> legal document), the local authority will maintain a record of the
> purchaser. From there it's a case of tracing its inheritance to the present
> generation. But it's unlikely that both the OP's mother and her cousin have
> rights over the grave of their grandparents; either one of them will have
> it, or the other, or possibly (if there were other children and
> grandchildren) neither.



"But it's unlikely that both the OP's mother and her cousin have
rights over the grave of their grandparents". I do not get that at all.

Surely, it would be pretty common for the grandparents to leave the
residue of their estate equally between their children? So, one of the
OP's mum's parents and one of the cousin's parents would both have
received a share of the grave lease. (Assuming cousin is a first
cousin.) then, presumably, the OP's mum and the cousin have each
inherited their parent's share.




Mark Goodge

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Oct 23, 2014, 1:35:42 PM10/23/14
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On Thu, 23 Oct 2014 18:05:33 +0100, GB put finger to keyboard and typed:
Well, for a start that assumes that it was the grandparents who bought
their own graves, rather than one of their children. That is by no means
necessarily the case. In fact, for someone of that era (the
great-grandparent of the OP) I'd say say is more unlikely than likely). But
leaving the residue equally doesn't mean leaving it all to them as joint
owners of it. It usually means that it's divided equally between them, with
one getting part of it and another getting an equal other part.

David

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Oct 23, 2014, 5:29:51 PM10/23/14
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Surely there is a bit missing from this account?

I am assuming that the cousin was actually buried in the plot where the
headstone is?
If so, it is a little late to start worrying about the headstone - if the
burial was permitted then why try and prevent details of the burial being
added to the headstone?
Surely the owner of the plot was consulted before the burial took place?

Or are you saying that the widow is wandering the countryside having
details of her late spouse chipped into various grave stones which are not
associated with the burial plot?

Cheers

Dave R


--
Windows 8.1 on PCSpecialist box

GB

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Oct 24, 2014, 8:21:43 AM10/24/14
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we are just going through the process with my mother-in-law, who died in
March. She left everything to be divided equally between her 2
children. They have just arranged for a stone, which will be "laid"
shortly. That has been paid for out of the estate. The cost is
allowable as an offset when calculating the value of the estate for
inheritance tax purposes. The grave itself was paid for through
membership of a burial society that mother-in-law subscribed to.

I assume that the 2 children own the stone equally between them. Either
that, or it is covered by some obscure regulation of the burial society,
which perhaps take over ownership of anything placed on their land.

There were certainly no suggestion between the 2 children that one of
them was going to own the grave and the other was going to get some
chattel of equal value. They own the grave and the stone jointly
between the 2 of them.


GB

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Oct 24, 2014, 8:53:31 AM10/24/14
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On 24/10/2014 13:21, GB wrote:

> They own the grave and the stone jointly
> between the 2 of them.

I should have added: To the extent that they own them at all, and the
burial society has not taken over ownership.

GB

unread,
Oct 24, 2014, 8:53:50 AM10/24/14
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On 23/10/2014 21:10, David wrote:

> Or are you saying that the widow is wandering the countryside having
> details of her late spouse chipped into various grave stones which are not
> associated with the burial plot?

Many of our family gravestones include references to relatives who died
and were buried elsewhere.

Robin

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Oct 24, 2014, 9:29:10 AM10/24/14
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> They have just arranged for a stone, which will be "laid"
> shortly. That has been paid for out of the estate. The cost is
> allowable as an offset when calculating the value of the estate for
> inheritance tax purposes.

Not relevant to your circs. but it may be worth mentioning that the IHT
treatment is actually quite generous given the cost of a headstone is
*not* a funeral expense. So if personal representatives pay for
headstones out of the estate without the agreement of the beneficiaries
they risk having to reach into their own pockets. Ditto a wake etc.
Subject of course to what any will provides for by way of headstone,
wake, etc..

--
Robin
reply to address is (meant to be) valid


michae...@googlemail.com

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Dec 29, 2016, 6:22:31 AM12/29/16
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Urgent advise needed

david.dmor...@gmail.com

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May 31, 2017, 6:25:27 AM5/31/17
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Can I put a border around the plot and put flowers inside

Robin

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May 31, 2017, 6:34:51 AM5/31/17
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On 31/05/2017 10:40, david.dmor...@gmail.com wrote:
> Can I put a border around the plot and put flowers inside
>
If you own the rights to the plot then you need to consult the rules of
the burial ground or ask the management. If you don't own the rights
you need to ask whoever does.

But a good guide in practice is to see if that has been done with other
plots. (And it's often not allowed because of the risk of it not being
maintained.)

--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid

steve robinson

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May 31, 2017, 7:20:44 PM5/31/17
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On Wed, 31 May 2017 02:40:02 -0700 (PDT),
david.dmor...@gmail.com wrote:

>Can I put a border around the plot and put flowers inside


Depends on the rules of the cemetery, because of the potential of
injury or risk of damage most restrict ornaments and borders , The
cemetery where my parents are laid to rest has a strict removal
policy of any borders or ornaments such as shepherds crooks

jiko...@gmail.com

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Jun 17, 2018, 8:42:25 AM6/17/18
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If a burial plot is put in name of person by agreement of the person paying for it can they claim it back.

Robin

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Jun 17, 2018, 9:17:54 AM6/17/18
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On 17/06/2018 13:17, jiko...@gmail.com wrote:
> If a burial plot is put in name of person by agreement of the person paying for it can they claim it back.
>

IMHO it is impossible to say without knowing the details of what was
bought and what was done. A burial plot in England is usually an
"exclusive right of burial" - like a lease. So the legal niceties matter.

Fredxx

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Jun 17, 2018, 10:03:09 AM6/17/18
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On 17/06/2018 13:17, jiko...@gmail.com wrote:
> If a burial plot is put in name of person by agreement of the person
> paying for it can they claim it back.

"Paying", ie not paid for, implies the original owner still has ownership.

I am uncertain if an agreement/contract has a statutory time-limit for
payment. Probably 6 years, or perhaps less if forfeiture of right to
purchase has been raised.


Peter Johnson

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Jun 18, 2018, 12:36:41 PM6/18/18
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I was recently informed, by a cousin, that I am regarded as the owner
of the plot where my paternal grandparents are buried. That is because
their children are both deceased and I am their eldest grandchild, not
because it was bequeathed to me.

boltonbr...@gmail.com

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Feb 7, 2020, 3:32:23 PM2/7/20
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Hi my son passed away he was married we have fallen out iv bought a new cross as they took the one that was on it when he was buried are they aloud to take it

Mark Goodge

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Feb 7, 2020, 4:29:32 PM2/7/20
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This is more complicated than it may at first appear, and there is unlikely
to be a simple answer. However...

Burial plots are not, for the most part, owned. They are rented (on a very
long rental term) from the burial authority. This may be either the church,
or the local authority (either a town/parish or district/city/borough
council). After a certain amount of time, if the plot is no longer being
actively maintained, the rights revert to the burial authority. But if the
deceased has living relatives, then whoever paid for the plot will still
have the right to maintain it.

The headstone, however, is the property of whoever paid for it. Again, once
it has been there long enough, if the grave is no longer actively being
maintained, then the headstone is assumed to have been abandoned into the
possession of the burial authority.

In your case, though, neither of these will have occurred as the grave must
be a fairly recent one. So the short answer is that the burial plot is still
in the possession of whoever paid for it, and the headstone, equally, is
still the property of whoever paid for it.

If that was you, then they (whoever "they" may be) have no right to remove
the headstone. But if the headstone was paid for by someone else, then that
person has the right to remove it.

Where it gets more complicated is if the burial plot and the headstone were
paid for by different people. In that case, although the headstone remains
the property of the person who paid for it, it cannot normally be removed
from the grave without the permission of the person who has possession of
the plot (which will normally be the person who paid for it).

I should add that, unfortunately, disputes like this are not uncommon. As a
first step, you should contact the burial authority and ask for their
advice. If it's a church graveyard, then the vicar is the appropriate person
to contact. If it's a town/parish council graveyard, then contact the
town/parish clerk. If it's a district/city/borough council, then you may
need to track down the relevant department via the council's website. But
the one thing you can be sure of is that this won't be the first time
they've had to deal with a case like this!

If you are the person in possession of the plot, and you paid for the
headstone, then the burial authority will normally write to the other party
to remind them that they have no rights over the grave. In most cases,
that's enough to end the matter. If not, and you are determined to pursue
it, then you will probably need professional legal advice.

On the other hand, if you are not the person in possession of the plot or
the person who paid for the headstone, then they probably do have the right
to remove it. This is why, if you are at all unsure, you need to get the
advice of the burial authority.

Mark

war...@hotmail.co.uk

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Feb 8, 2020, 9:08:25 AM2/8/20
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Who because of 'Data Protection' won't tell you. The headstone on my grandparents' grave is leaning over and I am happy to pay for this to be rectified. However, the local authority won't let me do this without permission of the deed holder and they won't tell me who that is. Since four out of five of their children are dead, it it quite likely the deed holder is dead also.

It is no wonder most of the graves in that cemetery are in a terrible state.

Jonathan

Roland Perry

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Feb 8, 2020, 9:54:43 AM2/8/20
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In message <03d2bd88-03b0-4fb5...@googlegroups.com>, at
06:08:11 on Sat, 8 Feb 2020, war...@hotmail.co.uk remarked:
>On Wednesday, 22 October 2014 06:45:10 UTC+1, Nightjar <"cpb"@ wrote:
>> On 21/10/2014 22:54, davedia...@gmail.com wrote:
>> > Hello,
>> >
>> > Wondering if you can help me and my mother? Her grandparents are
>> >buried in a certain plot with headstone.
>> >
>> > Recently, her cousin died, and his widow paid to get the deceased's
>> >name engraved on the stone.
>> >
>> > Due to ill-feeling between my mother and the deceased's widow, she
>> >believes it is her right to get the name removed, ie. she doesn't
>> >want her cousin's (now deceased) name on it.
>> >
>> > So, to the point, is she the rightful custodian of the headstone?
>> >(She doesn't have any deeds).
>>
>> AIUI, the headstone is the property of the person who is leasing the
>> burial plot. In the absence of the deeds, determining who that is will
>> probably require the help of the cemetery staff.
>
>Who because of 'Data Protection' won't tell you. The headstone on my
>grandparents' grave is leaning over and I am happy to pay for this to
>be rectified. However, the local authority won't let me do this without
>permission of the deed holder and they won't tell me who that is.

It's possible that if they are filed under the name of the deed-holder,
rather than plot number, or deceased, they could have considerable
difficulty finding it, and 'Data Protection' is just an easy excuse.

>Since four out of five of their children are dead, it it quite likely
>the deed holder is dead also.

In which case DPA doesn't apply.

What if you gave them a list of all five names, and asked if it was any
the deceased ones? That wouldn't identify the living one, because it
could be someone else entirely.

>It is no wonder most of the graves in that cemetery are in a terrible state.

--
Roland Perry

nightjar

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Feb 8, 2020, 11:43:28 AM2/8/20
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On 08/02/2020 14:08, war...@hotmail.co.uk wrote:
> On Wednesday, 22 October 2014 06:45:10 UTC+1, Nightjar <"cpb"@ wrote:
>> On 21/10/2014 22:54, davedia...@gmail.com wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> Wondering if you can help me and my mother? Her grandparents are buried in a certain plot with headstone.
>>>
>>> Recently, her cousin died, and his widow paid to get the deceased's name engraved on the stone.
>>>
>>> Due to ill-feeling between my mother and the deceased's widow, she believes it is her right to get the name removed, ie. she doesn't want her cousin's (now deceased) name on it.
>>>
>>> So, to the point, is she the rightful custodian of the headstone? (She doesn't have any deeds).
>>
>> AIUI, the headstone is the property of the person who is leasing the
>> burial plot. In the absence of the deeds, determining who that is will
>> probably require the help of the cemetery staff.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Colin Bignell

How did my name get attached to a post from Mark Goodge? I haven't even
replied to this thread until now.

>
> Who because of 'Data Protection' won't tell you. The headstone on my grandparents' grave is leaning over and I am happy to pay for this to be rectified. However, the local authority won't let me do this without permission of the deed holder and they won't tell me who that is. Since four out of five of their children are dead, it it quite likely the deed holder is dead also.
>
> It is no wonder most of the graves in that cemetery are in a terrible state.
>
> Jonathan
>


--
Colin Bignell

Andy Burns

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Feb 8, 2020, 12:03:22 PM2/8/20
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nightjar wrote:

> How did my name get attached to a post from Mark Goodge? I haven't even
> replied to this thread until now.

You did ... six years ago!

<http://al.howardknight.net/?STYPE=msgid&MSGI=%3CyJidnd07ifIacdvJnZ2dnUU7-UmdnZ2d%40giganews.com%3E>

steve robinson

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Feb 8, 2020, 12:12:04 PM2/8/20
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Also depending how the headstone is installed you may need a
license or permit to dig into the ground , I came across this
issue when reinstating a siding to my grandparents grave that had
moved due to the reopening of the grave next to their resting place

Mark Goodge

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Feb 8, 2020, 12:28:27 PM2/8/20
to
Amd then someone else replied to that ancient post earlier today. Which is
confusing, because the 2014 thread has exactly the same title as one started
yesterday, which is the one I replied to.

I suspect that what's happened, though, is that the OP in this thread has
done a search on Google for their issue, found the original post, but,
because it didn't directly answer their question, has posted their own
question - but as a follow-up to the original (hence the identical title)
rather than starting a new thread. The post I replied to has a References
header matching the first post in the 2014 thread of the same title. So
anyone using Google Groups (or, indeed, anyone with a local spool that goes
that far back) will see it as the old thread re-opened rather than a new
thread. So someone has seen that, and then replied to an old message from
2014 rather than replying to yesterday's question.

You can see that in action on Google Groups - go to the first post in the
2020 thread and you'll see it as actually being added to the earlier thread.

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/uk.legal.moderated/MM3_ibXBBu0/I9ZWHQA2FAAJ

I think this is a flaw in Google Groups. It really ought to warn you when
you're replying to a post that's several years old. But that's nothing to do
with graveyards.

Mark
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