Buchanan v. Buchanan

Briefly stated, the action is to replevy a corpse and, in effect, is instituted by the widow of the deceased against his brother, the party who caused the interment of his remains.

Presumably, the interment was decent and fitting, for it is not otherwise alleged, and the widow’s grievance is substantially that the defendant’s exercise of dominion over the corpse, for burial, was in hostility to her right to choose her husband’s place of sepulture.

While it has been generally stated that there can be no right of property in a dead body still it is recognized that there exists a personal right in…