Overview

• The Verwaltungsgericht Aachen dismissed a widow’s lawsuit seeking to relocate her deceased partner’s urn for accessibility reasons.
• The court ruled that moving the urn would violate the principle of Totenruhe, or the protection of the dead’s repose, without the deceased’s prior consent.
• Judges stated that age-related physical limitations of survivors do not outweigh legal protections for burial sanctity.
• The plaintiff had chosen a basic, unspecified burial plot, which the court noted could foreseeably lead to accessibility challenges.
• The verdict is not yet final, as the plaintiff may request permission to appeal to the Higher Administrative Court in Münster.