The petitioner sought the exhumation of her father (died 1989) and sister (died 1948, aged six months) from their grave at Bingham Cemetery for reburial at Wilford Hill Cemetery alongside their mother, who had died and been buried there after an earlier petition for the same exhumations was refused in 2018 (Re Bingham Cemetery [2018] ECC S&N 1).

The court addressed whether the doctrine of res judicata applied to prevent consideration of a second petition seeking identical relief. It noted the uncertainty in the authorities following conflicting decisions in Re Brookwood Cemetery (No 2) [2024] ECC Gui 3 and Re Cheshunt Cemetery (No 3) [2019] ECC StA 2. The court in Brookwood had held that res judicata applied to consistory courts and a second petition for the same relief could only be considered if the petitioner also sought to set aside the earlier decision. However, the Dean of Arches’ approach in his permission decision in Cheshunt appeared to suggest that fresh petitions were permissible even after an unsuccessful application to set aside. The court concluded it was not bound by the obiter extension in Brookwood of res judicata to a second petition by a different petitioner. As the present petitioner could not have appealed the earlier decision or applied to set it aside, neither res judicata nor abuse of process applied.

On the substantive merits, the court found no special circumstances to displace the presumption against exhumation. The family grave argument was undermined by the family’s own decision to bury the mother separately at Wilford Hill despite knowing of the court’s earlier refusal to permit exhumation. The authorities established that travel difficulties do not justify exhumation. The claim that the family was unaware that Bingham Cemetery was consecrated ground was rejected as implausible, given no such assertion was made in the earlier proceedings, in which the then-petitioner was professionally represented. The passage of time counted against exhumation as it demonstrated no genuine mistake requiring correction. A faculty was refused.