After a day of hearing legal argument, Justice John Fogarty has reserved his decision on the dispute over the burial of a Tuhoe Maori whose body and casket were whisked from Christchurch by his whanau.
James Takamore is buried next to his father and among his kin at Kutarere Marae, near Opotiki, in the Bay of Plenty.
But his widow, Denise Clarke, has spent three days in the High Court at Christchurch seeking a court order to have the body disinterred and reburied according to her wishes as the executor and sole trustee of his will, at the Ruru Lawn Cemetery in Christchurch.
The hearing of evidence was finished on Tuesday and Justice Fogarty spent much of today hearing legal submissions from the counsel for the Takamore whanau in the North Island, Jamie Ferguson, and Miss Clarke's counsel, Phillip Allan.
Mr Ferguson told the court he could find no record of any similar case in New Zealand's legal archives dating back to the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi 169 years ago.
Justice Fogarty commented that he believed there was some likelihood that such a case could happen again, bearing in mind that New Zealand was becoming a more litigious society.
He set no date for the delivery of his judgment.
