Wife, husband's parents battle in court over his burial site

A regular weekly look-back at some offbeat or interesting stories that have appeared in the Citizen over its 175-year history.

According to Matthew 19:5, “For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh.”

This biblical description of the transfer of a man from his parents to his spouse figured in a Supreme Court of Ontario decision following a curious dispute between a man's widow and his parents regarding the final disposal of his remains.

The October 1920 case was launched by Louis and Mary Gallien, parents of Hermidas Gallien, against his widow, Lida Gallien, and the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of the Diocese of Ottawa. At issue was the body of Hermidas, who, according to the Citizen's report, died more than a decade earlier, in January 1910.

According to the newspaper's account of the trial, Hermidas was buried in Notre-Dame cemetery in September 1910, after his mother was given the deed to Lot 2048 in Block Z of the cemetery. On April 23, 1919, however, Lida had her husband's remains exhumed and interred in a different plot.

According to counsel W.C. Greig, who represented Hermidas's parents, there was an agreement with Lida that her husband would be interred in his parents' plot provided they paid for the burial.

Defence counsel Henri St. Jacques somewhat disagreed, noting that the agreement further stated that Lida and her children would, upon their deaths, also be buried in the same plot. But, soon after Hermidas's (initial) burial, it was alleged, Mary had told Lida that she would never be buried with her husband.

Before any evidence had been given, Justice Latchford challenged Greig to show on what law or grounds his case was based, after which the judge remarked, “You cannot get the body back, if I understand law. You cannot get it back from the place the widow put it. It is all a matter of law. There may be something in regard to your claims as to the contract, but what damages for the purposes of the present action does grief sustain?”

The judge added that British civil law did not allow the case to be contested on the notion that “property existed in the body of the deceased.”

“His lordship,” the Citizen reported, “later on remarked as to the pathetic side of the case, and further stated that the claim of the plaintiff was for the recovery of the body of a man whose widow had seen to it that he had been given a decent burial.”

Latchford dismissed the case without costs to either side.

A recent check with Notre-Dame officials confirmed that the remains of Hormisdas Gallien (not Hermidas) were exhumed from the family plot and reinterred elsewhere in the cemetery, about 100 metres away. His date of death, according to his headstone, was Jan. 22, 1919. Additionally, his widow's name is listed elsewhere as Ida.