109 N.Y.S. 228 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1908
Louisa and Barbara Ackermann presented, their petition to the Supreme Court praying for leave to disinter the remains of then-parents from a lot or plot in which such remains had been buried in Woodlawn Cemetery and remove them to one which belongs to the petitioners. The application seems to have been -made under the provisions of chapter 715.of the Laws of 1900, which amends section'51 of chapter 559 of the Laws.of 1895. In the 4th subdivision of said section, as amended by the act of 1900, it- is provided that “ A dead body lawfully buried in a lot in such a cémetery may be removed .therefrom, with the consent of the corporation and a written consent of the owners of such
That definition does not seem to include these petitioners; but we will assume for the purposes of the case now before us that they have authority under the act in question to apply to the court for leave to remove the bodies of their parents, but the grounds upon which the court should proceed remain to be considered, and, as I apprehend them, they are among those upon which courts of equity would heretofore have allowed the disinterment ■ and reburial of human remains. The law throws around the bodies of deceased human beings a protection even in their, graves. The right of-Christian sepulture includes the right to have one’s remains respected in his or her last resting place. Many circumstances arise from time to time necessitating a disturbance of the repose of the dead, but it must be some controlling public reason or superior private right which should induce the court to permit that to be done which from, time immemorial has been considered abstractly as a work of desecration.
There is much literature on this subject, none of winch is particularly instructive so far as this case is concerned, and it. is sufficient to refer for general information to the opinion of Lewis, J., in Matter of Donn (14 N. Y. Supp. 189) where the leading cases in this country relating to the matter are considered.
The order appealed from sho.uld be reversed, .without costSj and the motion denied.
McLaughlin, Clabke and Scott, JJ., concurred ; Ingbaham, J., concurred in result.
Order reversed and motion denied, without costs.