The Supreme Court has reserved its decision in a five-year legal battle over the final resting place of a man whose family took his body and buried it against his partner's wishes.
James Takamore was interred at a marae in the Bay of Plenty in accordance with tikanga, or Maori customs and traditions, after he died from an aneurism in 2007.
Since then his partner and executor of the will, Denise Clarke, has been fighting to have his body returned to Christchurch, where he lived with her and their two children for 20 years.
Both the High Court and the Court of Appeal ruled it was unlawful of Mr Takamore's family to take his body, but his sister Josephine Takamore appealed to the Supreme Court.
The case centres on whether the Court of Appeal was correct that the executor could decide where a body should be buried.