## Facts

- John Wilkes Booth died in 1865 and was interred in the Booth family plot at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.
- Virginia Eleanor Humbrecht Kline and other petitioners (including researchers) asserted that the body in the Booth grave was not Booth and sought court-ordered disinterment for scientific testing to confirm identity.
- Green Mount Cemetery, citing obligations to protect and preserve graves and remains, intervened and opposed the requested disinterment.
- After a multi-day evidentiary hearing, the Circuit Court for Baltimore City denied the petition, finding the proof supporting disinterment insufficient.

## Issues

1. Whether Green Mount Cemetery had a sufficient legal interest to intervene and actively oppose a petition to disinter remains interred on its grounds.
2. Whether the trial court committed reversible error in its treatment of Kline’s status as a proper party to seek disinterment as an asserted distant relative.
3. Whether the denial of disinterment, including the trial court’s factual findings about the credibility and sufficiency of petitioners’ evidence, was clearly erroneous.

## Decision

- The Court of Special Appeals of Maryland affirmed the judgment denying disinterment.
- The court held the cemetery was properly permitted to intervene and participate fully in opposition to exhumation.
- The court found no reversible error concerning petitioners’ party status, including Kline’s.
- Applying deferential review to the trial court’s fact-finding, the court concluded the record supported the determination that petitioners’ showing was speculative and did not justify disturbing the grave.

## Legal Principles

- A cemetery with charter- or law-based duties to preserve and protect graves and remains has a cognizable interest sufficient to intervene and oppose disinterment proceedings affecting burials on its property.
- Disinterment is an extraordinary remedy; a court may deny exhumation absent good and substantial reasons supported by credible evidence, particularly where burial has been long-settled.
- In disinterment litigation, trial-court credibility determinations and factual findings are reviewed for clear error and will be upheld when supported by the record.

## Conclusion

The appellate court left the burial undisturbed, holding that the cemetery could actively oppose exhumation and that petitioners’ speculative theories did not meet the demanding showing required to justify disinterment, especially in light of the trial court’s supported factual findings.


Kline v. Green Mount Cemetery, 110 Md. App. 383, 677 A.2d 623 (Md. Ct. Spec. App. 1996)