In this appeal from proceeding filed in the Family Part involving the cremation remains and personal effects of the parties' son, who died unexpectedly and suddenly at age twenty, the mother unilaterally decided to have the body cremated without informing the father that their son had died, preventing him from participating in that decision and attending the memorial service. The mother has sole possession of the cremation remains and the son's remaining personal effects and refuses to divide them with the father.
The court concluded the father had ample opportunity to litigate Colleen's alleged alienation of their son's affection and interference with his parenting time and communication with his late son in the Family Part during the years leading up to his son's eighteenth birthday. He chose not to do so, and instead waited until the dispute over the cremation remains and personal effects erupted more than two years after their son turned eighteen to first raise those issues. The court deemed those issues waived and, in turn, concluded that a plenary hearing regarding the parties conduct during the last five years of their son's life is not required as the evidence overwhelming demonstrated the mother had a closer relationship with their son. Applying a four-prong test, the court held the mother shall have control over the cremation remains.
The court affirmed the termination of child support, retroactive to the date of death.
The court also provides guidance on the proper procedure to be utilized in future similar disputes, by filing a complaint in the Probate Part, rather than applications in the Family Part.
