TENAFLY NEW JERSEY BERGEN COUNTY FAMILY MEDIATION

This is a dispute among the widow of the decedent, her mother-in-law, and the decedent's adult children, about where to bury the decedent. The widow wanted to bury her husband in a plot the two had purchased 10 years before his death; the children, two of whom were executors, voted to bury their father in the plot where they said he had verbally expressed he wished to be buried. The trial judge found for defendants, but the appellate court reverses, concluding that the adult children violated the Cemetery Act by burying the decedent in a plot owned by their paternal grandmother, depriving the widow of the right to determine the disposition of the remains of her husband of 27 years. The trial judge, in fact, found that the statute was violated. However, she analyzed the widow's request to disinter and relocate the body to her plot under N.J.S.A. 45:27-23 without consideration of the potential impact of N.J.S.A. 45:27-22. Even if the defendants were totally credible (which she found they were not), the decedent's orally-expressed preference does not outweigh all of the other factors that strongly favor disinterment. Under the proper balancing analysis, the widow clearly established good cause.  Marino v. Marino, Jr., et al., New Jersey App. Div., February 19, 2008