93 Iowa 228 | Iowa | 1895
I. The fact that the plaintiff holds the legal title to the lot wherein, rest the remains of her dead father is not, to onr minds, of controlling importance, in determining as to the right of the defendant to remove his remains. If the title was held by a stranger, there might be reason for removing the remains of the deceased to a lot, the title toi which was in some member of his family. Especially so if he was bnried in a lot under the mistaken belief that he or some member of his family owned it, when in fact it belonged to some one else. As it is, the owner of the lot being his daughter, we do not see that there is any reason for disturbing his remains. He knew who held the title to this lot, and more than once, during his lifetime, expressed a wish that when he died he might be interred therein, beside the remains of his first'wife. This wish was properly carried out by his last wife, and that ought to end the matter. A proper apprecia.tion of the duty we owe to the dead, and a due regard for the feelings of their friends who survive, and the promotion of the public health and welfare, all require that the bodies of the dead- should not be exhumed, except under circumstances of extreme exigency. No emergency exists in this case.
For some reason, — it matters not what, — his daughter is unwilling that her stepmother should erect a monument upon this lot, not only in memory of her deceased husband, but also in memory of his first wife, and of plaintiff’s first husband. Having assented to her father being buried in her lot, she: ought not to be heard to say that his wife shall not erect thereon, to his
We think the District Court erred. It should have entered a decree for plaintiff, enjoining the removal of the body of Philip Deeds, and authorizing the defendant to erect upon the lot in which rest- his remains a monument to his memory, with proper inscriptions. Under the peculiar circumstances of this case, defendant’s right in this respect should be properly guarded, as to the size and location of the monument, having in mind the plaintiff’s right to occupy and use the rest of the lot. We think that no inscription should be permitted to be placed upon the monument, in any way .referring to the plaintiff or her first husband, whose remains lie in said lot.
Defendant should not be permitted to erect a coping around said lot To do co would be a virtual act of appropriation of the whole lot, which, under the circumstances, would, we think, be manifestly improper. The decree should be broad enough to permit both parties, as well as any of the kin-of the deceased, to, at their pleasure, decorate the grave of the deceased with flowers, and, in so doing, not to interfere with each other. The case will be remanded to the District Court, with instructions to proceed in conformity with the views herein expressed. — Reversed.