Anna Yome, Respondent v. John B. Gorman, as Supervisor of Roman Catholic Cemeteries, Diocese of Brooklyn…

Summary

The New York Court of Appeals reversed the lower courts' injunction prohibiting the removal of bodies from a Catholic cemetery, holding that no right to disinterment exists absent an extraordinary emergency and that the injunction was improper on the record. The Court emphasized the need to weigh religious interests, the wishes of the deceased, and surviving kin, finding the facts insufficient to justify such an equitable remedy. A concurrence argued that a contractual restriction should preclude removal, but the majority did not adopt that view.