Re St John, Walsall Wood

The widow of B had reserved a gravespace by faculty next to her husband's grave. The grant of the faculty had been noted in the burial register but the grave had not been marked. Subsequently the body of H had been buried by mistake in the space, in a service not conducted by the incumbent. The incumbent discovered the mistake straightaway. The widow of B was not content to transfer her reservation to another space, and the mother of H was not content for her son's body to be exhumed and reburied elsewhere. H had died suddenly abroad, and his body had already been exhumed once (in Spain) and reburied. The Archdeacon of Walsall petitioned the court for a faculty for the exhumation and reburial of the body of H. The diocesan churchyard regulations state that where a mistake of this kind has been made that this is ‘likely to amount to a good and proper reason’ for exhumation, if promptly discovered. In Re Blagdon Cemetery [2002] Fam 299, the court stated that in such cases a faculty for exhumation may ‘readily be granted’. Counsel for the opponent mother of H submitted that ‘likely’ and ‘readily’ did not equate to ‘will always’ and ‘inevitably’ and that the chancellor retained discretion. The chancellor was unwilling to overturn the court's previous decision to grant a faculty for the reservation of the gravespace and noted the views of the family of B and the promptness of bringing the mistake to the attention of the court. He granted a faculty for the exhumation and reburial of H in the churchyard with the costs of this process, and the court costs, to be paid by the incumbent. [WA]