Montreal man files class-action against cemetery after plot contract length changed [Video]

A Montreal man says he was surprised to find the burial plot his family purchased in perpetuity now has an expiration date.

Pedro Gregorio said he bought a family plot at the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery when his father unexpectedly died in 1987.

“It was a contract in perpetuity, and we saw this as a family plot,” he said, adding that the plot could accommodate two caskets and four urns.

However, when the time came to bury his mother in 2022, he found out the contract had changed, from perpetuity to 99 years.

The cemetery informed him it was because of changes to a provincial law that had been passed in 1994.

“When I asked further which law, they just sent me a copy of their internal regulations,” he said.

He contacted lawyer Charles O’brien of Lorax Litigation who investigated and found there is no law forcing Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery to change the …