Man buried in wrong grave after churchyard mix-up to be reinterred, court orders Mrs Dickson, 63, said she had been separated from her son tragically early in life and so bought the grave so that they would not be "separated from him in death." She said that while she sympathised with the other family, there was no alternative than to move Mr Garrett's body. But the Garrett family were adamant that he should not be moved because of their Christian belief that his grave should be his final resting place. After attempts to find a compromise failed the case went to the diocesan Consistory Court, an ecclesiastical court, which heard that the vicar, the Rev Alan Burgess, had marked out the plot for Mr Garrett's grave before his funeral. In his judgment, the Chancellor of the Dioceses of Leicester, the Worshipful Mark Blackett-Ord, explained that Rev Burgess had forgotten to double check a plan of the churchyard before going out to mark the grave on a snowy day. He said that although both families had expressed deep sympathy for the other's predicament, a compromise was not possible and his best hope was to choose an outcome involving "the least injustice" "The Dicksons felt that they were entitled to the reserved plot beside their beloved son," he said. The Garretts held to the orthodox Christian belief that once a person is buried in consecrated ground that should be his final resting place. Each of these contentions has much force in it both legally and morally. Each family has held to its own position throughout the proceedings. He added: "It is a serious matter to order the disinterment of a body in the face of opposition by the family. On the other hand, it seems to me to be an equally serious matter that a family who have been granted by faculty the reserved use of a burial space beside a beloved family member, should lose any right to that space if another person is wrongly buried there. Mr Garrett's body will now be moved to an adjoining grave without being fully exhumed meaning that he would remain "committed to the earth for rest" and would not have to have a new funeral. Rev Burgess has apologised to both families and even agreed to pay the costs of the case.