60 
PARK AND CEMETERY 
RIGHT OF BURIAL IN ANCESTRAL LOT. 
In reference to the disposition of the remains of the dead, 
in all civilized countries the law, the supreme court of Geor- 
gia says, March, 1901, has a due regard for the public health, 
common decency and the feelings and sensibilities of the 
relatives and friends of the deceased. At common law, a 
corpse cannot be cast out, so as to expose it to violation, or 
to offend the feelings or endanger the health of the living, 
but must be properly interred, and the body must be carried 
to the place of interment decently covered. And it seems 
that, in the absence of those who can claim the right by re- 
lationship, this duty devolves upon the householder under 
whose roof a person dies. Except where deceased leaves a 
husband or a wife surviving, the r'ght to properly dispose of 
the dead body belongs to the next of kin. 
The case before the court, that of Wright against Ceme- 
tery Corporation, was brought to recover damages for an 
alleged unlawful and unwarrantable interference with the 
exercise of the right of burial of a daughter in a lot which 
her mother had purchased and been buried in. It was 
brought by the grandmother and a minor brother, respect- 
ively, of the deceased daugther. It appeared that, after 
traveling for about six miles with the dead body of their 
near and beloved relative and a funeral procession of rela- 
tives and friends, and reaching the gate of the cemetery in 
which the court says, they had a perfect legal right to inter 
the remains, and in which the defendant corporation had, 
under a contract with them, prepared the necessary grave, 
and received, in advance, pay for this work, they were sud- 
denly and unexpectedly halted, denied access to the grounds 
for the purpose of the burial, and turned away, to find, as 
best they could, another place of interment. Surely, says 
the court, this was a wrong in which there were aggravating 
circumstances in the act, if not in the intention, and made a 
case in which exemplary damages could be awarded. It 
points out, too, that the main injury in this case was the 
mental distress occasioned by what it terms the unwar- 
ranted and outrageous conduct complained of, and it holds 
that, in an action for an unlawful and unwarranted inter- 
ference with the exercise of such a right of burial, if the in- 
jury inflicted was wanton and malicious, or the result of 
gross negligence, or a reckless disregard of the rights of 
others, equivalent to an intentional violation of them, ex- 
emplary damages may be awarded, in estimating which the 
injury to the natural feelings of the party suing may be 
taken into consideration. 
Upon the death of the mother who purchased this lot, the 
title to the same, the court holds, descended to her children 
as her heirs at law. Hence, this daughter, at the time of her 
death, as one of those heirs at law, owned an undivided in- 
terest in that lot, and the right of sepulture therein, where- 
fore, the court maintains, whoever had the right to bury her 
remains had the right to inter them in this lot. Her next 
of kin were a brother and sister, the former a minor, and 
the latter a non-resident. At the time of her death, she was 
living with her grandmother. And, under these circumstan- 
ces, the court thinks that both the right and the duty of giv- 
ing to the remains a decent Christian burial devolved upon 
the grandmother, who was the next of kin of full age pres- 
ent and fully capable of asserting a legal right in the matter, 
So it holds that she had the legal right to cause the body to 
be buried in the lot wherein there was, relatively to the de- 
ceased, a lawful right of sepulture. Certainly, the court says, 
when, with the consent and co-operation of the young brother 
of the deceased, and the nearest of kin who was upon the 
scene of action, she undertook to inter the remains, the 
cemetery corporation could not have had even the semblance 
of an excuse for questioning her right to do so. And it 
holds that the brother of the deceased, though a minor, had 
the right to participate with the grandmother in causing such 
interment to be made. He, as well as the grandmother, had 
the right to free and unobstructed access to the cemetery, to 
the use of the necessary driveways and approaches to the 
lot, and, without let or hindrance, to bury the corpse there- 
in. Besides, as the owner of an undivided interest in this lot, 
he had the right to free and unobstructed access thereto for 
any lawful purpose whatever. 
Also, the court holds that an unlawful .and unwarranted 
interference with the exercise of such right of burial was a 
tort, or wrongful act, which gave to the grandmother and 
brother a cause of action against the wrongdoer, and they 
were entitled to maintain the same without joining with 
themselves as a part plaintiff a non-resident sister of the 
deceased, who was not present when the attempt to bury the 
remains was made. 
EXTRACTS FROM CEMETERY REPORTS. 
The Green River Cemetery Association, Greenfield, Mass., 
at its annual meeting held on the soth anniversary of its in- 
corporation, reported the following financial items: Increase 
in perpetual care fund, $1,800; total fund, $7,000; general 
fund, increase $500, total amount, $2,000; funds available for 
new entrances to be constructed this spring, $500. 
The annual reports of the officers of the Riverside Ceme- 
tery Association, Waterbury, Conn., present the following 
statistics: Receipts for lots sold, $5,169; receipts for flowers 
and plants, interest and fees, $3,319; expenses for labor, 
supplies, etc., $5,342; for building masonry wall fence, $20,- 
566, for which $16,780 in subscriptions have been received; 
2,888 feet of this wall have been completed and 650 feet re- 
main to be built; interments for the year, 198; total inter- 
ments, 5,276. 
The statistics of Beechwood Cemetery, Ottawa, Ont., show 
a decrease in the mortality of that city. The total number 
of interments is 8,541; the interments for the year ending 
April I were 335, the smallest in the past five years. The 
number of family plots sold was thirty-nine, the smallest in 
fifteen years. The minimum number of interments in a 
month was in June, when there were fifteen; the largest was 
thirty-eight, in March. Among the improvements contem- 
plated are the extension of the city water works, erection 
of a pavilion, uniforms for attendants and the extension of 
the street car system to the gates of the cemetery. 
The sixth annual report of the cemetery commissioners 
of the city of New Bedford, Mass., a handsome souvenir 
pamphlet in itself, shows a constant improvement in the 
direction of modern cemetery practice in the cemeteries of 
this old town, the property more recently acquired being 
laid out as required and conducted on the lawn plan. The 
bugbear of neglected lots is still irksome to the management, 
but this is being remedied as rapidly as may be. The total 
receipts, including previous balance for ttie year igoo, was 
$28,465.29, covering the four cemeteries of the town. Rural, 
Oak Grove, Pine Grove and Griffin street. The receipts 
included: Council appropriations, $16,500; labor on lots, 
$11,261.89; general expenditures, $26,871. .30. The total inter- 
ments in the three principal cemeteries are 20,938. Green- 
house facilities have been increased to the great advantage 
of the grounds. A gift of $50 by Mr. Oliver F. Brown for 
the planting of trees in the Rural street approach to that 
cemetery will be a much appreciated thoughtfulness. A sug- 
gestive incident in connection with the neglected lots was 
the fact that one upon which was erected a memorial by the 
city to a former mayor, Isaac C. Taber, was in bad shape. 
It was immediately cared for of course. The perpetual care 
fund now amounts to $60,929.15, representing 628 lots. 
