A gay Baltimore man has won a legal battle to keep his late partner’s remains buried in the Tennessee grave the two men chose.

Kevin-Douglas Olive reached a settlement Aug. 10 with the parents of his late partner, Russell Groff, who sought to move the body to a family plot. The settlement ended a legal battle that lasted two years.

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Although the settlement yielded what Scurti called “a good result” for Olive, he noted the case held a lesson for gay Marylanders.

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“Get your legal documents in order now, not next week,” Olive said. “Call an attorney. And make sure it’s an attorney who does it, not some form you’ve gotten online. Spend the money now, because if you don’t spend the money now, you might spend a whole lot more later. A whole lot more.”

Scurti said legal costs for the case, charged at about one-third his usual rate, were more than $5,000. He noted those costs would have doubled had the case gone to trial.

Olive, who sold his car to help fund the case, received assistance and donations from people across the nation and as far away as Belgium.