What Are The Remedies For Wrongful Disposition Of Remains?

If you have thought about any of the provisions of your will, but not yet written it, you have probably thought about which family members, friends, or charities you want to inherit which items of property from your estate. You might even have someone in mind to designate as personal representative; the person can be a relative, a friend, or even your estate planning attorney. If you are really on top of your game, you might even have chosen a successor personal representative. You might attend a consultation with a lawyer to draft your will, and the lawyer might tell you that you should include a clause about final disposition of remains, meaning burial or cremation. If a deceased person’s relatives disagree about where the decedent’s body should be buried, it is difficult to reach a solution that will satisfy all of them, even after litigation. Legal disputes over wrongful burial are almost as ghastly as the disinterment of human remains, even though one is not necessarily the consequence of the other. To find out more about expressing your wishes about final disposition of remains, contact a Tampa estate planning lawyer.

The Court Might Award You Damages for Wrongful Burial of a Deceased Family Member’s Remains, but They Probably Will Not Disinter the Body

Florida law allows two types of final disposition of remains, namely burial and cremation. It recently expanded the definition of cremation to include alkaline hydrolysis, where chemicals quickly dissolve the soft tissues of the body and reduce the bones to a powder similar to ashes, which the surviving relatives may scatter or store in an urn, as they would do with the ashes of a cremated body.

If the funeral home disposes of the body in ways other than what the decedent indicated in the will, the surviving family members can file a lawsuit. Wrongful disposition can mean burying the body in the wrong cemetery or wrong plot, or it can mean burying the body when the will indicated creation. Even if the court recognizes the mistake, it probably will not order the cemetery to disinter the body. Regardless of the reason for disinterment, it is illegal to disinter a buried body unless a court order authorizes it. Court decisions have established that, once a body has been buried, it becomes part of the earth, and only in extraordinary cases is there a valid justification for disturbing it. Instead, lawsuits over wrongful burial are more likely to result in the court awarding damages to the plaintiffs if they prove that the body was buried incorrectly. The damages compensate the plaintiffs for the financial losses they suffered because of the wrongful burial, as well as for emotional distress.

Contact David Toback About Disputes Over Wrongful Burial

A Central Florida estate planning lawyer can help you recover damages for the wrongful burial of a relative’s remains, even though it is unlikely that the court will order a change of burial place.  Contact David Toback in Tampa, Florida to set up a consultation.

Source:

leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0400-0499/0497/Sections/0497.384.html#:~:text=(1)%20The%20disinterment%20and%20reinterment,made%20in%20the%20same%20cemetery.