28 Mar 2012

Relations who took body go to highest court

8:34 pm on 28 March 2012

A Bay of Plenty family which allegedly stole a relation's body from a Christchurch marae four years ago has won the right to appeal a ruling that taking the body was unlawful.

James Junior Takamore lived in Christchurch with his wife and two children, but shortly after his death in August 2007, whanau members took his body and buried it in a Tuhoe family cemetery.

In November last year the Court of Appeal declared the Bay of Plenty's family's actions were unlawful, and ordered the case back to the High Court to seek a resolution between those family members and the man's wife, the mother of their two children.

But the Bay of Plenty relatives have successfully sought leave to appeal to the Supreme Court in a bid to overturn the Court of Appeal's ruling.