Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Pennsylvania

What do you mean by your stepmother has "allowed" your father to remain in an unmarked grave? Funeral & burial costs are the responsibility of your father's estate. Who is the estate executor? Is it your stepmother? Does she have the funds? If she does not have the funds, why haven't the children stepped up? Even if the stepmother has the funds and is the executor of the estate, is there anything which precludes the children from getting the money together and getting a suitable grave marker for your father?

What does your father's will or any other documents say about this, if you know? Some people do not want fancy burials and perhaps this is what your father would have wanted. I don't know.

In answer to your question, I would want to see any will, living will or other document articulating your father's wishes, if there is such a document. If there is not and no arrangements were made prior to your father's death, then it would fall to the surviving family members. I still don't see why any interested family member can't make a deal with the cemetary to pay for a gravestone.

I am not sure why your stepmother would need any of the children's consent to do anything. She was the wife. If she is the person who dealt with the cemetary, then I don't see any prohibitions on her exhuming your father's body and moving him to another cemetary. I also don't see any prohibitions on any of the children doing likewise.

I checked the PA statutes briefly (assuming your father is buried in PA) and I did not see anything therein directly addressing the situation. My advice would be that if you and your stepmother cannot all get along and work out whatever is causing the dispute, then the only alternative would be to file some kind of petition in the courts and get a court decree - perhaps an injunction to prevent his removal? In such case, you should contact local counsel, preferably a probate litigation attorney as he or she may be more familiar with this type of situation.