Weld v. Walker
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Bill in equity, filed October 23, 1878, against Gideon Walker, George Ivers and the Forest Hills Cemetery, a corporation duly established by law, to obtain the permission of this court to the removal by the plaintiff of the body of his wife, with the coffin containing it, and the stones and monuments placed by him at her grave, from a lot in the cemetery of the defendant corporation owned by the other defendants, where she was buried on August 29, 1875, to a lot owned by the…
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Bill in equity, filed October 23, 1878, against Gideon Walker, George Ivers and the Forest Hills Cemetery, a corporation duly established by law, to obtain the permission of this court to the removal by the plaintiff of the body of his wife, with the coffin containing it, and the stones and monuments placed by him at her grave, from a lot in the cemetery of the defendant corporation owned by the other defendants, where she was buried on August 29, 1875, to a lot owned by the plaintiff in another cemetery; and to restrain the defendants from preventing or interfering with such removal. The…
1Opinion of the CourtGray, C. J.
The rules of law applicable to this case are too well settled to require or permit elaborate discussion. Neither the husband nor the next of kin have, strictly speaking, any right of property in a dead body; but controversies between them as to the place of its burial are in this country, where there are no ecclesiastical courts, within the jurisdiction of a court of equity. 2 Bl. Com. 429. Meagher v. Driscoll, 99 Mass. 281. In re Beekman Street, 4 Bradf. 503, 532. Pierce v. Swan Point Cemetery, 10 R. I. 227. It is the husband’s right and duty to bury his deceased wife. Durell v. Hayward, 9…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Meagher v. DriscollMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1868
- Cunningham v. ReardonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1868
3Cited by39 opinions
- Yome v. GormanNew York Court of Appeals · 1926
- Pettigrew v. PettigrewSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1904
- Koerber v. PatekWisconsin Supreme Court · 1904
- Burney v. Children's HospitalMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1897
- Beaulieu v. Great Northern Railway Co.Supreme Court of Minnesota · 1907
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