Grisso v. Nolen

In this appeal, we consider whether a decedent’s former spouse had standing to petition the circuit court to have the decedent’s body disinterred and reburied in accord with what he contended was the decedent’s expressed wish regarding her final resting place.

BACKGROUND

Dillard Lawson Nolen and Lorraine Chitwood Nolen were married in 1955. The couple had one child, Sandra Nolen Grisso. Dillard Nolen and Lorraine Nolen were divorced in 1993, but continued to cohabit intermittently for the next six years until Lorraine’s death on August 4, 1999.

Lorraine Nolen died intestate and left no written…