The chancellor handed down a judgment concerning the question of who has the right or duty to erect a memorial at a grave and how disputes on that issue should be resolved. At the time of the deceased's death, tensions existed between his family and his partner. Despite an agreement negotiated in the presence of the incumbent and a solicitor to approve a memorial headstone for the deceased's grave, his son erected a headstone which was not agreed and for which he had no legal authority. The son objected when the deceased's partner then petitioned for permission to erect an alternative memorial. Each party objected to the form or wording of the other's memorial. The archdeacon, at the chancellor's invitation, issued a second petition for the removal of the son's memorial and the erection of a simple memorial recording only the deceased's name and dates of birth and death. Extended public and special notices were directed to be given. Any faculty granted under the second petition would give permission for anyone to erect that memorial within three years.

The chancellor considered the legal position in relation to funeral arrangements and the disposal of a dead body but concluded that there was no overriding legal principle to determine who should have power to determine how, and whether, a deceased person should be commemorated. Indeed, there was no overwhelming need for the deceased to be commemorated at all. The chancellor held that there was no hard and fast rule that the wishes and feelings of a quasi-marital partner should always be subordinate to those of blood relatives. The chancellor indicated that he was minded to grant a faculty under the second petition, that he would consider sympathetically any amendment to the first petition which reflected an accord between all parties and that he would not look sympathetically upon an amendment not supported by all factions. In the event, an agreed compromise was reached at the hearing. The chancellor allowed an amendment to the second petition which reflected that agreement and granted a faculty accordingly. [RA]