When a person is charged by law with the duty of interment he is entitled to the custody of the remains for the purpose of interment or, with respect to cremated remains, for the purpose of burial at sea in accordance with the provisions of this division; except that in any case where a coroner is required by law to investigate the cause of death, the coroner is entitled to the custody of the remains of the person whose death is the subject of investigation until the conclusion of the autopsy or medical investigation by the coroner. Any person in whose possession such remains are found, shall, upon demand by the coroner, surrender such remains to him.
Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7102
Custody, and Duty of Interment
Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case 2 Cal. App. 4th 1614 - Donaldson v. Lungren (1992)
Most recently applied in 996 F. Supp. 2d 921 - Shelley v. County of San Joaquin (February 2014)
Amended by Stats. 1965, Ch. 1421.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.