Harvard Morgue Suit Can Proceed, State High Court Says (2)

Harvard University must face litigation over a former morgue manager’s desecration of human remains that were donated to its medical school for research, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held Monday.

The school “had a legal obligation to provide for the dignified treatment and disposal of the donated remains, and failed miserably in this regard,” Justice Scott L. Kafker said in the unanimous opinion.

The ruling cited Harvard for “peculiarly pervasive noncompliance” and reverses a lower court’s decision to throw out cases brought by more than a dozen families.

The opinion allows family members of people whose bodies were donated ...