A woman has lost her legal bid to have her late partner's body exhumed and cremated in accordance with what she said were his wishes.
Jamie Pooley was 26 when he died in 2011 and he was buried in Christchurch.
However his partner, Cheyenne Biddle, with whom he had two children, told the High Court in Christchurch last year she wanted the body exhumed so it could be cremated and the ashes returned to his mother's ancestral East Coast home.
She said that was what Mr Pooley had wanted.
In a decision released today, Justice Nation ruled Mr Pooley's desire to be cremated and have his ashes dealt with by his children was based on an assumption they would be adults when he died.
The judge also ruled Ms Biddle had not been excluded from family discussions with the funeral director.
