Decisions of Interest

Over a widow's objections, her husband's remains were ordered delivered from the crematorium where they had been sent to another funeral home for burial in accordance with Jewish law. The woman and the deceased were separated at the time of his death and there was evidence that the deceased would have preferred a Jewish burial (which does not allow cremation). Matter of Jack Salomon, N.Y.L.J. 6/20/03, Vol. 299; Pg. p. 25, col. 5.

Petitioner, the executor of the deceased man's will, sought an order to have the deceased's remains turned over to him from the crematorium where respondents (the deceased's wife and daughter) had sent them, in order to have them interred in accordance with Jewish tradition. The deceased and his wife had separated just before he entered the hospital for the last time, and evidence was presented that he had intended to seek a divorce from her. The court weighed these circumstances against the fact that the deceased had apparently been a devout and observant Jew, although he left no explicit instructions on how his remains should be handled. In ordering that the remains be turned over to petitioner for Jewish burial, the court noted that even if there had been no marital separation, the deceased's wishes would have taken precedence over the general rule that the next of kin can decide these matters. But because the deceased left no instructions as to how his remains should be disposed of, evidence of the separation was probably a factor in the court's decision to try to decipher the decedent's wishes by observing how he had lived his life, as the court noted in its reasoning that a wife from whom a decedent was separated does not have the same rights as a widow concerning his remains.