In the very carious case of " Williams v. Williams,"
decided on Wednesday, in the High Court (Chancery Division), Mr. Justice Kay laid down as absolutely certain a doctrine which is, we fancy, wholly unknown to the public at large. He declared that by English law " there could be no property in the dead body of a human being," that it does not belong even to its original owner, and that, consequently, "a man could not dispose, by will or by any other instrument, of his body,"—a decision curiously at variance with the fre- quent bequests of bodies to the College of Surgeons. Neither can an heir, say, an only son, inherit a right to his father's body. The custody of a corpse until buried belongs in law to the executors, and they are bound to bury it in a manner befitting the estate of the deceased. It follows, of course, that the executors are not legally bound to cremate a body because the testator wished it, or, in fact, to carry out any arrange- ments, except those for a decent funeral. Mr. Williams had wished to be cremated, and his daughter had the corpse cremated in Italy, at a cost of 2321. She sought to recover that money from the executors, but on the above grounds was held to have no claim.
Previous page
