Court Opinion

ID: 9792742
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:35:42.675105+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:35:22.003414
License: Public Domain

Justice KIRSHBAUM
concurring in part and specially concurring in part.
I concur in parts I, III, and IV of the majority opinion. However, I cannot join part II thereof.
The allegations of the complaint do not establish intentional or reckless conduct by any of the defendants. While such allegations might establish negligent conduct by some or all of the defendants, the Culpeppers purposely elected not to pursue negligence *884claims in this action and did not request the trial court to recognize the principles set forth in Section 868 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts (1979). As the majority notes, the court of appeals apparently elected to address that question sua sponte. Maj. op. at 881. In view of these circumstances, I conclude that the court of appeals erred in addressing a theory of recovery neither advocated nor suggested by the Culpeppers. The issue should not be considered to any extent by this court. See A.O. Smith Harvestore Prods., Inc. v. Kallsen, 817 P.2d 1038 (Colo.1991).
The majority rejects the Culpeppers’ conversion claim on the basis of its conclusion that there is no property right in a dead body that would support such a claim. Maj. op. at 882. It is not clear whether the majority acknowledges that family members do have some property rights in dead bodies. Certainly some courts and commentators have recognized such rights. See, e.g., Scarpaci v. Milwaukee County, 96 Wis.2d 663, 292 N.W.2d 816, 820 (1980); Michelle Bourianoff Bray, Personalizing Personalty: Toward a Property Right in Human Bodies, 69 Tex.L.Rev. 209 (1990); Erik S. Jaffe, “She’s Got Bette DavisRs] Eyes”: Assessing the Nonconsensual Removal of Cadaver Organs Under the Takings and Due Process Clauses, 90 Colum.L.Rev. 528 (1990). I am not prepared to conclude that the interests of surviving family members in the appropriate care of the body of a deceased person are not interests susceptible to judicial protection. Nor am I prepared to conclude that a dead body has no measurable value under any circumstances.
I do conclude, however, that the Culpep-pers have not established a claim for conversion in this case. This court has defined “conversion” as “any distinct, unauthorized act of dominion or ownership exercised by one person over personal property belonging to another.” Byron v. York Inv. Co., 133 Colo. 418, 424, 296 P.2d 742, 745 (1956). One commentator has noted that “[t]he gist of the tort is the exercise, or intent to exercise, dominion or control over the property of another in denial of, or inconsistent with, his or her rights therein.” 7 Stuart M. Speiser, et al., The American Law of Torts § 24:1 at 700 (1983).. Another has stated that “the tort of conversion has been confined to those major interferences with the chattel, or with the plaintiffs rights in it, which are so serious, and so important, as to justify the forced judicial sale to the defendant which is the distinguishing feature of the action.” W. Page Keeton, et al., Prosser and Keeton on the Law of Torts § 15 at 90 (5th ed. 1984). See also Restatement (Second) of Torts § 222A (1965) (conversion is an exercise of dominion “which so seriously interferes with the right of another to control it that the actor may justly be required to pay the other the full value of the chattel”).
The Culpeppers alleged that their posses-sory interest in the body was “for the purposes of burial.” Their amended complaint does not allege that the defendants wrongfully interfered in a substantial way with that particular possessory interest. Not only do they fail to allege that the body was not capable of burial; they affirmatively allege that they elected to cremate the body. In view of this state of the pleadings, I agree with the majority’s conclusion that the claim for conversion was properly dismissed.
Therefore, I specially concur in part II of the majority opinion.
SCOTT, J., joins in this concurrence and special concurrence.