Oxford Consistory Court: Boydell Ch, November 2000
A faculty was sought by the Brazilian Ambassador on behalf of a charitable trust to exhume from a vault beneath the nave the remains of Hipolito Jose Da Costa for reburial in a consecrated mausoleum in Brasilia and to introduce to the parish church a plaque to record the event. The remains of the deceased had been interred in the parish church on his death in 1823. He was an important national figure in Brazil and credited as being the founder of the free press in that country. At the time of his death transportation of his remains to Brazil would have been impracticable. The chancellor considered that, following the law as set down in Re Christ Church, Alsager [1999] Fam 142, [1999] 1 All ER 117, he was required to ask if there was a 'good and proper reason for exhumation'. He found that such reasons existed; viz that the deceased was regarded as a national hero in a friendly country; that he played a major part in the creation of Brazil as a sovereign state; that his remains would be re-interred in a consecrated mausoleum in Brasilia; the principle of the comity of nations and that the faculty application was unopposed and unanimously supported by the PCC. Despite the fact that a significant amount of time had elapsed since the burial which would normally militate against the grant of a faculty the petition was granted.
Note: This case is fully reported at [2001] 1 WLR 831. It was the last substantive judgment delivered by Peter Boydell QC prior to his death, whilst still in office as Chancellor of the Diocese of Oxford, in February 2001. He is much missed by his family and by his many friends at the bar and elsewhere.
(2001) 6 Ecc LJ 166-167
