A rehabilitation facility’s “reasonable” attempts to contact a deceased patient’s family—including leaving voicemails and trying to track a P.O. Box—meant the deceased’s estate and family did not have its right to sepulcher violated when a guardian buried the decedent, a state appeals court has ruled.
In awarding certain defendants summary judgment, an Appellate Division, Second Department, panel ruled the defendants in Martin v. Ability Beyond Disability, 64948/13, “submit[ted] evidence demonstrating that their actions concerning the decedent’s burial were reasonable and made in good faith … and in compliance with Public Health Law §4201.”
