Weird Funeral Home Story Three

From MSNBC:

Funeral home misplaces grandma

Wrong body in casket clothed with grandmother’s dress, family says
The Associated Press
updated 10:04 a.m. CT, Wed., July 16, 2008

STICKNEY, Ill. – A family from suburban Chicago said they arrived at a funeral home Monday to view their 91-year-old grandmother’s body, but instead found another woman in the casket.

Even worse, the family of Lillian Grogan said the stranger had on the grandmother’s dress and favorite bracelet. They claim the mix-up happened because the funeral home incorrectly tagged Grogan and another woman.

By the time it was noticed, Grogan had already been buried. Her family got a court order to have the body exhumed yesterday, and she’ll be reburied.

A spokeswoman for the company that owns the funeral home declined to discuss the incident.

Another Weird Funeral Home Story and Alabama Law on Outrage

From Fox:

License Revoked for Funeral Home Accused of Cutting Tall Corpse to Fit Inside Coffin

Tuesday , June 02, 2009

ALLENDALE, S.C. —

The South Carolina funeral board has revoked the licenses of a funeral home and its director for cutting the legs of a 6-foot-7 man so his corpse would fit in a casket.

State licensing spokesman Jim Knight says the Board of Funeral Service voted Monday to revoke the funeral director license of Michael Cave and the license of Cave Funeral Services of Allendale.

Knight says the board also fined Cave the maximum $500 and ordered him to pay $1,500 for the investigation.

Cave did not immediately return messages left at his home and business Tuesday.

The body of James Hines was exhumed earlier this year because of rumors that circulated after he died in 2004.

His widow said investigators told her his legs had been cut off between the ankle and calf to fit the coffin.

That is a heck of a case in Alabama.  Messing with the departed is a huge no-no in Alabama and is one of the areas where a claim for “outrage” (intentional infliction of emotional distress) will stick.

The most recent reported case in Alabama (meaning, in the law books) is Akins Funeral Home, Inc. v. Miller, 878 So.2d 267 (Ala. 2003) where the funeral home cremated the wrong body.  Terrible set of facts and the outrage claim prevailed.

On the other side of the fence is Pate v. Sunset Funeral Home, 465 So.2d 347 (Ala. 1984) where there was bad identification of the badly burned bodies by the State Troopers or by the forensic people or whoever and the jury found the funeral home not responsible.

I miss Justice Red Jones and wish we had someone like him on the Alabama Supreme Court today.  Here is his explanation from Ridout’s-Brown Service v. Holloway, 397 So.2d 125 (Ala. 1981) as to why these cases are so important:

I do not quarrel with the proposition that, within the context of our religious heritage and cultural values, the “Funeral Home” occupies one of the most exalted positions of trust among our institutions.
It matters not the station in life of the departed; however wretched his earthly existence; and whatever may be the fate of his soul; we tend to share the common belief that death is the ultimate victory, and that “Rest in Peace” is as much a solace to the next of kin as an eternal hope for the dead. Surely, one who merchandises the wares and services of these last rites must be held to the highest awareness of his customer’s sensibilities, and must discharge his duties with tenderness and forthright-ness.

I have sued funeral homes and cemetaries and have also defended the same on occassion.  Justice Jones’ view is still correct today.  Trust is everything.

Weird Story One: Four Bodies Left in Funeral Home

Photo Credit: Stephanie Dowell/Post-Tribune

From the Associated Press:

4 bodies left behind in vacant Ind. funeral home

GARY, Ind. (AP) — Church leaders who bought a defunct Indiana funeral home in a tax sale have stumbled upon four bodies that had been left behind in the vacant building.

Lake County Coroner David J. Pastrick calls the situation in the former Serenity Gardens Funeral Home in Gary “unbelievable.”

Leaders of the Northlake Church of Christ called authorities after finding a body bag on a table Sunday.

Pastrick and his staff found one body in the bag, then another in a burial box and finally two more in caskets.

None has been identified.

Pastrick says the bodies may have been there since 2006, when the funeral home’s business license was revoked after several people filed complaints.

Gary police and state agencies are investigating.

From the Post Tribune:

GARY — Four bodies in a funeral home isn’t unusual.

Four unidentified bodies left behind in a vacant funeral home is “unbelievable.”

That’s what the Rev. Reginald Burrell thought Sunday when he and deacons from Northlake Church of Christ went to visit their newly purchased building.

“What in the world is a body still doing in this building?” Burrell thought when he saw a body bag on a table inside the former Serenity Gardens Funeral Home, 934 E. 21st Ave.

He notified Lake County Coroner David J. Pastrick, who arrived Tuesday morning with a crew to investigate the scene.

They found four bodies, including one in the bag, one in a corrugated burial box and two in caskets.

Pastrick believes they could have been there since 2006, when the Indiana State Board of Funeral and Cemetery Services revoked the business license for Serenity owner Darryl Cammack.

“They are unidentifiable,” Pastrick said of the remains.

Cammack, who lost his funeral home license in Illinois in 2003, had been sanctioned by the Indiana board in 2005 after at least eight customers filed complaints against him.

“That building has been vacant since I started coming over to that church in Gary in 2005,” Burrell said.

His church bought the building at a tax sale and intends to renovate it.

“We have lots of plans and goals we want to pursue,” Burrell said. The church now is located next door to their proposed new site.

Gary police are working with state agencies in the investigation.

Lake County Commissioner Roosevelt Allen, who was chairman of the state board in 2005, said Cammack could be charged with breaking several laws.

Pastrick said he doesn’t know the origin of the bodies, but believes if the deceased were local, he would have been contacted by relatives about a delay in burial.

“I can’t even imagine a funeral director doing something like this. This is my field. It’s unbelievable,” Pastrick said.