Context: My family contains a number of estranged members that do not communicate regularly with each other and have differing opinions on key topics such as making arrangements for this funeral.
Question: Typically speaking (this happens to be in Vancouver, Canada but I imagine standards are similar across North America) I was wondering if anyone knows what sort of procedures are applied by a coroner’s office when deciding who to release a body to after an autopsy has been completed. My aunt just died and two sides of the family have differing opinions as to whether a religious funeral should be held. My aunt had no next of kin and no will. Her two siblings are the ones with different views on how the funeral arrangements should be handled. How is this sort of thing handled by the authorities? Additionally, who typically has the right to learn the results of the autopsy and official cause of death?
Everyone has a next of kin; the problem can be identifying them, if family relationships are unknown.
In your aunt’s case, assuming her parents are dead and she has no living spouse or adult children/grandchildren, her next of kin will be her siblings jointly. They have both the right and the duty to make funeral arrangements. Under BC law if the siblings cannot agree, then the oldest sibling has the prior right; if the oldest sibling fails or refuses to make decisions and give instructions then the right passes to the next oldest sibling. And so on.
Any of the family who are unhappy with this arrangement and its outcome can apply to the Supreme Court for an order in relation to the disposition of your aunt’s remains and, if the Supreme Court makes an order, that will trump whatever the next of kin have decided.
I would imagine the authorities will allow a certain amount of time to allow the siblings to reach agreement but, if that doesn’t happen (and if there is no court order) then they will release the body to the oldest sibling willing to make funeral arrangements.
I don’t know for sure, but I imagine any autopsy report will be released to all the siblings as next of kin.
The official cause of death will be publicly released. It’ll be on the death certificate, and in the register of deaths.
I expect that most countries have a legally established order of precedence for this kind of situation. The disposal of the estate of someone who dies intestate for example.
There are many different scenarios and if there is no spouse or children it can get complicated. With an estate, full siblings would be treated equally. but without an agreement, then whatever rules there are will come into effect.
In terms of funeral arrangements - yes, in most places you can all sit back and say “it’s not my job”. There might be some places where some family member can’t avoid paying for it - but every place has a procedure for burial/cremation of unclaimed bodies at some point.
But as far as releasing the body - I’m sure that everyplace has policies and procedures. For example, in my state, there is a list of persons who have the right to make the final decision in order of priority. First priority is a person appointed in the will , last priority is anyone acting on the decedents behalf. In between are various relatives, a court- appointed guardian , heirs, close friends and not-otherwise designated relatives and the public administrator of the county. If there is no one available, willing and competent in a category , then the right to decide goes to the next priority down - so that if you have no spouse or domestic partner, your adult children decide and if not of your adult children are available/willing/competent , your parents will be able to make the decision. If there is more than one person in the same class and they disagree, a court must resolve the dispute.
An acquaintance of mine was recently found deceased in his apartment. His landlord had a phone number for his brother as an emergency contact, but when the authorities called, the person said he was not the deceased’s brother ( I don’t know if he was or not) At any rate, since no next of kin could be located, friends were able to make the arrangements. If no one came forward, he would have been buried in the city cemetery.
My friend’s sister died. There were 3 living siblings, the parents were deceased. The sister that died had never married nor had kids. When she was alive, she rarely had contact with her siblings and parents. She didn’t attend her father’s funeral. The only time she spoke with her mother was when she needed money. In the 10 years or so before her death, the other siblings had nothing to do with her anymore, as she never acknowledged them either. When she died, no one in the family claimed her body nor made any arrangements. They simply didn’t care. I’m not sure where her body was taken to, but the siblings kept getting phone calls asking what they wanted to do with her. They all told them they didn’t care what they did with the body. Eventually, the phone calls stopped. Very sad.
When my MIL died (in Pennsylvania) my wife was the youngest sibling but executor (and had been POA, irrelevant after death except that the nursing home where she died called my wife and released the body to her without fuss). Funeral home accepted her executorship as authorization to make arrangements. However, since my MIL wanted cremation, the funeral home required written permission for that procedure from all siblings, including the oldest who had been estranged for decades. So depending on jurisdiction the rules may be different for different arrangements.
That seems like the funeral home’s rule - it’s much more plausible that the funeral home would have different requirements for different methods than that the law would allow to executor to authorize a burial but require unanimous consent for a cremation. Everything I got on searches regarding Pennsylvania said something like this
Pennsylvania law determines who has the right to make final decisions about a person’s body and funeral services. This right and responsibility goes to the following people, in order:
a person you name before your death in “an explicit and sincere expression, either verbal or written”
If you don’t name a person to handle your final arrangements and there is a disagreement between two or more people with equal standing as your next of kin – for example, if you have several children or many siblings – they will have to go to court to resolve their dispute. (Pennsylvania Statutes, Title 20, Chapter 3 § 305(d)(2)2C (2018).) To avoid such an outcome, it’s best to name a representative in advance.
That was my experience also in Pennsylvania. When my mom died I knew she didn’t want any kind of funeral, just cremation. My sister wanted a funeral, and I did not argue. But before cremation would be done I had to stop at the funeral home and sign some sort of document.
The funeral guy was nice enough, but when he said “I’ll see you Saturday” I explained that funeral homes gave me the creeps, and no, he would not see me Saturday.
It’s plausible to me that the funeral home instituted that rule because (a) they’ve had bad experiences in the past with family members getting upset because someone was cremated, and/or (b) they make more money on a traditional burial than a cremation, and they don’t want to make it too easy for people to choose the cheaper option. But I’m just speculating here.
If there are disputes about the manner of burial, then there will likely be more disputes about the dispersal of the estate. The person assigned by the court as executor is supposed to act as an impartial administrator to settle the estate, which would most likely be a task granted to the eldest sibling. Without a will the estate will be split evenly among the siblings, but that is not a simple task. There are likely to be disagreements about the value of estate items and who should get items which have sentimental value. It’s easy to split liquid assets like a bank account, but things like property, collectibles and art will be problematic. The executor has the ultimate say in who gets what, but disgruntled heirs can sue the estate and tie up probate for years until a judge can make a ruling. Suing is only worth doing if the estate has significant value. If your aunt has a modest estate, then it can likely be split without too many legal headaches. In any case, you should stay out of it unless you like getting involved in family drama. If you’re not an heir, carefully consider getting involved with estranged relatives trying to distribute an estate without a will.
Thanks for the relies to my question. It occurred to me to ask because when my Mom passed away about 14 years ago her affairs had been handled by the county administrator in an adjoining county. Back story is that she’d been taken in by a “lottery winner” scam run out of Jamaica and would not listen to anyone. they had a competency hearing and the county was assigned as her administrator.
When she passed away I was asked what I wanted to do and chose a direct cremation at my expense. Don’t know what they’d have done if I’d said I didn’t care. I was wondering what the rules were in different states.
In most jurisdictions there’ll be a local government/public health authority whose role includes disposing of remains where no next of kin can be traced, or where the next of kin decline to take on the job. The costs of the disposal will be a first charge on the estate (although of course there may be no property in the estate).
Nothing brings out toddler level sibling rivalry like a good inheritance fight. I knew someone from work who was divorced, but never married his companion of 10 years. he died suddenly of a heart attack - and while she was grieving, his children came and took away his boat, his truck, and asked her to get out of his home. He’d never changed the paperwork on his pension in over 10 years, so his ex-wife got the company survivor’s pension. However, Canada Pension Plan does go to the most recent cohabitant, so she got that. General feeling at work was that he was a selfish bastard for not addressing these issues while alive. She did not even have a say in his funeral arrangements.
Co-workers were more sympathetic to another ex-wife; the husband died in an auto accident a few months after ditching him for a much younger woman. Again, he’d neglected to change pension documents so his wife was still full beneficiary, including Canada Pension. Since the divorce was not final, presumably she got to handle funeral arrangements if she cared to.
I don’t recall having to agree to cremation for my father; my nephew was executor and handled all the details, since he was the only one resembling a relative within several hundred miles in NJ and had been looking after my dad’s personal needs like mail, selling the house, and hospital trips. (Grandson of my step-mother).
I knew of a case where a woman died with only one relative, an adult nephew. He couldn’t get to her in time because she died September 10th 2001, and the very next day planes were grounded. He had to authorize stuff over the phone and the funeral was held without his presence.