Estate Planning

Estate Assets?

By Hull and Hull LLP

Two recent news stories had me thinking about the nature of assets of an estate.

The first story is about the sale of Lee Harvey Oswald's coffin. John F. Kennedy's assassin's coffin was sold recently at auction for $72,890 plus commissions (just in time for Christmas?). Oswald was buried in the coffin in 1963, and his body was exhumed in 1981 in order to investigate an allegation that a look-alike Russian agent was buried in his grave. Because the coffin was water damaged ($72,890 for a damaged coffin?), his remains were reinterred in a new coffin. The operator of the funeral home kept the old coffin (for almost 30 years?), and was it's seller.

Query: should the coffin be considered an asset of the estate?

In an obliquely related story, a severed head purported to be that of 17^th century French King Henri IV was confirmed as being genuine. Henri IV was assassinated in 1610 at the age of 57. Apparently, French revolutionaries raided his grave, and the graves of other former monarchs, in 1793 and mutilated their remains. Henri IV's head was then bought and sold over the centuries, and kept in private collections. Through the use of 3D scanners, x-rays and the review of other incidental evidence, scientists were to confirm that the relic was in fact the head of Henri IV. The head, which was found in the home of a retired French tax collector, was donated to Prince Louis de Bourbon, a descendant of Henri IV, for proper burial.

Rest in peace, Henri IV.

Thank you for reading.

Paul Trudelle

Full post as published by Toronto Estate Law Blog on December 21, 2010 (boomark / email).