The petitioner owned the exclusive burial rights to Plot 244A in Middlewich Cemetery. The cremated remains of various family members occupied the plot, including those of a number who had died in infancy; that included the remains of the parties opponent's brother and the petitioner's twin brother. In 2016 the cremated remains of the parties opponent's parents were interred in the plot without the petitioner's consent, rendering the plot full. When this was discovered the petitioner sought a faculty permitting the exhumation of the parties opponent's parents’ remains on the ground that they had been interred in breach of his legal rights: that burial rendered it no longer possible that his remains could, as he had always intended, be interred with those of his twin brother.

The chancellor considered the case law in the area, in particular the decisions in Re Twyford Cemetery [2015] PTSR Digest D 47 and Re Fairmile Cemetery [2017] ECC Oxf 2. In this case, the petitioner's legal right to determine who was buried in the plot was of importance, but did not supersede the requirements of Anglican doctrine and the chancellor's discretion. Whatever decision was reached would cause distress to one side or the other; it was impossible to evaluate the respective distress. Although the breach of the petitioner's exclusive right to burial and the mistake of the burial authority in permitting the interment was capable of amounting to a good reason justifying an exception to the norm of permanence of burial, the chancellor's appraisal of the overall circumstances of the case, including the intentions of the deceased and the presence of other relevant existing burials in the plot, meant that the petitioner had not discharged the burden resting upon him to show that a faculty should be granted. The petition was consequently dismissed. [RA]