22 S.E.2d 134 | Ga. | 1942
The right to remove the remains of a deceased wife from the place of original burial, and to have them reinterred elsewhere, is one that belongs to the surviving husband. Such right is not an unqualified one; and while there may be circumstances in which the courts will not lend their aid toward its exercise, no such situation is presented by the record in the instant case.
While the right of removal is not uniformly recognized as an absolute one belonging to the surviving husband or wife, many courts have held, under circumstances which, although not exactly the same as those presented in the instant case, nevertheless afforded grounds no less reasonable and sound, that the reinterment should be permitted. To permit the husband to reinter the body is but to grant him a right to exercise his choice as to the place of burial on a lot owned by him, and on a spot which would permit his body, when his own death occurs, to be placed near by. According to the petition, he thought, at the time of the original burial, the above two objects were accomplished. He seeks now no profanation, or any indignity to the dead, but merely the fulfillment of his original purpose.
It was erroneous to dismiss the action.
Judgment reversed. All the Justices concur. *527