O'Donnell v. Slack

Citations

• 123 Cal. 285
• 55 P. 906
• 1899 Cal. LEXIS 1061

Syllabus

<p>Estates of Deceased Persons—Disposition of Body of Decedent— Jurisdiction of Court.—If a decedent makes a testamentary dis- _ position of his body, the court in probate and his personal representative have jurisdiction to execute the will in that regard; but if the will is silent the court has no power to dispose of the remains, or to fix the place of the interment, or to commit the interment to a stranger; but the right to dispose of the body for interment in such ease belongs to the widow, or next of kin of the decedent.</p> <p>Id.—Foreign Interment—Bights oe Widow—Order Committing Interment to Stranger—Certiorari.—After the court had made an order directing the payment to the widow of a decedent by his executors of a specific sum to defray the expense of removal of the body and interment thereof in Ireland by her, in accordance with the last wish verbally expressed by the decedent, and had settled the final account of the executor showing such payment to the widow, it had no jurisdiction, without the consent of the widow, to change the order, and to commit the interment of the body in Ireland to a stranger not of kin to the deceased; and an order so made must be annulled upon writ of review.</p> <p>Id.—Allowance oe Expenses.—The proper expenses of the disposition of the body of the deceased by the next of kin may be allowed by the court as a charge against the estate; but the court cannot for that reason interfere with the duty and right of burial by the next of kin.</p>