As part of the estate planning process it is important that people do pre planning for their final arrangements and designate what they desire for their burial or other final arrangements.
This article illustrates what can happen when that is not done. Marital Status is important when a person dies though because not only does that person have an important role in the final arrangements but it is an important issue for determining who is entitled to property as well. Certain rights such as homestead, family allowance, elective share are predicated on marriage and even if someone provides for a spouse in a will pursuant to Florida law provisions in a Will or Trust are voided by the divorce and treated as if the spouse had predeceased.
The article says that the final resting place for the decedent will be decided by a judge as two women litigate over which was his wife at the time of his death and what city he will be buried in.
He was married in 1954 and had 3 children. As the article mentions there is a dispute over whether he had actually divorced his wife or merely pretended to do so in order to get remarried in 1989. Although there is a document trail they disputed and appear inconclusive. The initial wife says "she suspected and became aware that John E. Burrell ... was consorting with and was involved with other women, (but) John Burrell continued to represent himself to her as being her husband." She sought to have him buried within days of his death but the second woman who felt she was married to him told the funeral home they could not do so.
"Currently the body of the decedent is being stored at Petitioner's mortuary and will become a health hazard if not buried in the very near future," said the funeral directors Aug. 29 petition seeking instructions from the court. "At this point, we just want him buried or shipped or whatever needs to be done," she further mentioned.
He should have signed the proper documentation and made pre planned final arrangements with a funeral home or other final arrangements making clear his desires for these arrangements and they could have then been carried out and avoided the long, public and costly litigation. Obviously he should have let his "wives" know to whom he was truly married but he should have also made the proper pre planned final arrangements and discussed them with his family so there would be no attempt to contest his desires. Instead he died in July and his body will remain in limbo sitting in the mortuary until late December at the earliest as the final arrangements are litigated.