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Ecclesiastical Case Reports
Re Jean Gardiner deceased
(Carlisle Consistory Court: Tattersall Ch, May 2003)
Exhumation – mistake of fact
Mrs Gardiner was buried in error in a grave reserved for Mrs Elizabeth Nevin. There had been an error numbering the graves not appreciated by anybody. The Priest-in-Charge petitioned to exhume Mrs Gardiner and re-inter in her in an adjacent grave. Mrs Gardiner’s family opposed the application on the basis that she had been buried in good faith, the remains should not be disturbed, the exhumation would affect the widower’s health, the faculty to reserve the grave space could be varied and that there were issues relating to Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 1 of the First Protocol. The chancellor referred to Re Matheson (decd)1958 1 WLR 246, Re Christ Church, Alsager [1999] 1 All ER 117, and Re Blagdon Cemetery [2002] 4 All E R 482. He concluded, on the basis of the decision in Re St Luke’s Holbeach Hurn [1990] 2 All E R 749, that where a mistake had been made in effecting the burial a faculty would be more readily granted. He rejected the arguments in relation to Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 1 of the First Protocol on the grounds, inter alia, that there was no property in human remains and granted the faculty.
[JG]
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