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Settlement Reached in Case of Michigan Body Dumped in Landfill

Clayton Kent — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:12:06 GMT

If losing a family member was not already traumatic enough, imagine the nightmare of having the body of your loved one disappear from the funeral home you have entrusted with the remains. Worse yet, what if the body was picked up by a waste hauler and then buried in the local landfill. For the Jordan family of Holland, Michigan, this movie-like nightmare became a reality in January 2006 when the body of Erwin Jordan was picked up from the Notier-VerLee-Langeland Funeral Home by waste hauler Priority Arrowaste. A suit brought by the family against both the funeral home and the waste hauler, was recently settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. While the details of the settlement are bound by a confidentiality agreement, the Jordan family attorney, Jules Olsman, described the settlement as satisfactory.

The Jordan family filed a lawsuit after Priority Arrowaste, who was collecting recyclables from a garage at Notier-VerLee-Langeland Funeral Home, accidently collected a white box in the process. The box, labeled “Jordan,” contained the remains of Mr. Jordan. His body was being stored in the garage for space reasons, which the funeral home would occasionally do in the winter months. Jordan’s body was being stored while waiting for the family’s authorization to have the body cremated.

The remains of Mr. Jordan were found missing the morning after they were picked up. After two days of searching at the Autumn Hills Landfill, police, with the help of cadaver dogs, failed to locate the remains of Mr. Jordan.

Businesses Argue Over Liability

The family sued both businesses, seeking more than $1 million in damages. The funeral home and waste hauler filed cross claims against each other, trying to shift the blame of the mishap. The court ruled that Arrowaste was excluded from liability to the family, but not from its contract with Notier-VerLee-Langeland. The main part of the argument was whether the white box containing Mr. Jordan’s remains was within a few inches of recyclables in the garage, as Arrowaste claimed, or on the opposite side of the garage, as the funeral home claimed.

The two companies and Jordan’s family reached a settlement through mediation. Regardless of the settlement, or who is actually at fault, Mr. Jordan's body remains in the Auburn Hills landfill.

The original article can be found in the Grand Rapids news.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Clayton Kent

Funeral Home Negligence: CA Mortician Loses License

Laura Blatt — Thu, 17 May 2007 00:32:55 GMT

A mortician's license was indefinitely suspended for improperly storing bodies, allowing them to decay in a warehouse without proper refrigeration. Anthony Villeggiante is co-owner of Abby Chapel of the Redwoods in Rohnert Park, California. The mortuary has now been shut down.

When state inspectors checked the warehouse in March, they found nine bodies. A swamp cooler and baby powder did nothing to protect these bodies from decay, the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau said.

Funeral Home Abuses Are Too Common

Sadly, Abby Chapel is not the first mortuary to improperly store and handle human remains. Cases of funeral home negligence or malpractice involve improper embalming of a decedent, losing the remains, mixing the ashes of several bodies during cremation and even taking organs and severing body parts from the deceased before burial or cremation, and are more common than one would ordinarily think. These are horrible crimes committed against grieving families, and it becomes important to locate and use reputable, compassionate funeral homes when the need arises.

Funeral Home Owners Arrested

As for Mr. Villeggiante, the story of his troubles does not end with the loss of his mortician's license. He was arrested on May 10, along with his partner, for allegedly embezzling from a nonprofit. They are charged with soliciting donations of cars for the nonprofit agency, selling the vehicles and keeping the funds for themselves, or keeping the cars for personal or business use, and providing false tax documents to the donors.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Laura Blatt

Funeral Directors Charged in Human Chop Shop Case

Clayton Kent — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 21:02:40 GMT

Three funeral directors in Philadelphia were charged last week with the illegal taking and selling of body parts. Bones, skin, tendons and spines were taken from bodies without the permission of the families, and most of the "donors" were not suitable due to their age, physical condition, or because of disease. Once the body parts were taken, the bodies were then sent for cremation. The Philadelphia Grand Jury issued the indictment in a 103 page report.

For them, nothing was beyond the pale - not stealing flesh and bones from the dead or lying to the bereaved, not forging and lying on thousands of documents, not putting the public's health at risk,

The three funeral directors were paid $1,000 for each body part, and are alleged to have sold them to a New Jersey company, Biomedical Tissue Services. This is not the first time the owner of that company has been in trouble for stealing and selling body parts. Gruesome as it sounds, this type of practice is not that far out of the ordinary in the funeral business. While the majority of funeral homes are legitimate and respect the dignity of the family and the decedent, many do not.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Clayton Kent

Funeral Home Malpractice: Body Snatching and Medical Transplants

Laura Blatt — Wed, 23 May 2007 00:27:04 GMT

Three funeral home directors and four employees of a biomedical supply company are accused of stealing body parts, organs and tissue from corpses awaiting cremation or burial. Other charges include opening graves, unlawful dissection and fraud.

The defendants allegedly sold the parts to medical tissue banks, which provided them to hospitals and doctors for use in transplants and other medical procedures. Many of the body parts were from diseased or elderly donors.

The supply company was Biomedical Tissue Services in Brighton, New York, which closed in 2005. Biomedical's owner was a former dentist, Michael Mastromarino, who lost his license and then went into tissue recovery work. Mr. Mastromarino and three other men were charged with illegally removing bone and tissue from at least 1,077 bodies.

The funeral homes that were allegedly involved in the body parts scheme are located in the Rochester area of New York. They are the Thomas E. Burger Funeral Home in Hilton, the Profetta Funeral Chapel in Webster and Serenity Hills Funeral Chapel in Rochester.

The body snatching scheme is a particularly egregious example of funeral home abuse. Other cases involve improperly storing and handling human remains, losing the remains and mixing the ashes of several bodies during cremation.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Laura Blatt

‘Plot Turnover’ in Famous Chicago Cemetery Leads to Felony Charges

Clayton Kent — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:12:48 GMT

At the Burr Oak Cemetery in the southern suburbs of Chicago, lay the remains of a number of prominent figures from the African-American Community. It is also the site where four cemetery workers were accused of digging up hundreds of graves and dumping the remains in order to resell the burial plots. The Burr Oak Cemetery office manager and three gravediggers were changed with dismembering a human body, a felony.

Members of the community showed up at the cemetery to check grave sites, which includes the final resting place of historical figures like blues singers Dinah Washington and Willie Dixon, former world heavyweight champion Ezzard Charles, and Emmett Till, whose brutal murder in 1955 catalyzed the civil rights movement.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said it was not immediately clear whose plots had been dug up; an estimated 200-300 graves were desecrated. The scheme was estimated to have netted about $300,000 over the course of four years. Piles of bones and smashed gravestones from the dug-up graves were dumped in overgrown sections of the cemetery, Dart said.

For a full account, see the AP story.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Clayton Kent

Funeral Home Violations: Cemetery Owner Accused of Embezzling Funds

Laura Blatt — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 00:55:24 GMT

The owner of Forest Hill cemeteries in Memphis, Clayton Smart, allegedly embezzled millions from families who purchased pre-paid funeral policies, according to charges filed by the state. Mr. Smart is also accused of making off with $70 million in funeral home trust funds in Michigan.

Mr. Smart appeared before Tennessee Chancery Court Judge Arnold Goldin this week. He was held in contempt of court when he refused to disclose his assets.

Meanwhile, many families who have relatives buried in the Forest Hill cemeteries are waiting to have markers placed on the graves of their loved ones (Memphis Commercial Appeal, July 11, 2007). The current cemetery general manager says that Smart had often failed to order the markers, and that the back-up goes as far back as 2005. The state is now working to rectify the problem as well as to locate monies to pay those who purchased pre-paid funeral policies that were not honored.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Laura Blatt

Louisville Funeral Director Charged with Improperly Storing Body

Laura Blatt — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 21:33:48 GMT

Former Louisville funeral director Nathaniel Anderson has his troubles. Although his license was suspended in 2006, he was arrested last February for storing a corpse without refrigeration at his business, Anderson Funeral Services. A customer identified the deceased as her mother, and said that the body was supposed to have been cremated, according to Channel 32 News, WLKY, in Louisville.

Anderson Funeral Services has been shut down, and Mr. Anderson appeared in court recently on charges of fraud and abusing a corpse. New charges may be brought against him concerning other burials that he may have failed to perform and for allegedly making misrepresentations about pre-paid funerals. He has another court date set for July.

How Widespread Are Funeral Abuses?

Although the majority of funeral homes attempt to offer compassionate help and service, we have been hearing too much lately about funeral home abuses. In Northern California, a mortician's license was suspended for improperly storing bodies without refrigeration. In Washington, DC, six funeral homes did not have proper licenses, including one that failed to store bodies properly. And in New York, three funeral homes were involved in selling body parts from corpses without the consent of families. Other cases concern mishandling of human remains, losing the remains and mixing the ashes of several bodies during cremation.

Given the potential for funeral home abuse, consumers are advised to check the credentials and background of any funeral home before signing a contract. Also, consider it a warning sign if the funeral director and staff do not promptly answer questions to your satisfaction.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Laura Blatt

Abby Mortuary Funeral Director Loses License

Clayton Kent — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 17:19:13 GMT

I have previously written about the allegations against and conduct of the funeral director of Abby Mortuary in Rohnert Park, California. As you may recall, this was the incident where the mortuary was storing bodies in a rented warehouse, and, in some cases, storing them without refrigeration. The State Cemetery and Funeral Bureau, which regulates funeral directors, mortuaries, embalmers, and cemeteries, has now concluded its investigation into this matter. While the mortuary itself was closed in March by bureau regulators, the bureau has now announced that the funeral director and owner of Abby Mortuary himself will lose his establishment and funeral director's license effective September 1, 2007.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Clayton Kent

Funeral Home Malpractice: Funeral Home Problems in the Nation's Capitol

Laura Blatt — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 19:55:03 GMT

Reese Funeral Home in Washington, DC, was cited for allegedly not storing the bodies of the deceased at appropriate temperatures to prevent decay and for not having a licensed funeral director. The DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) also took enforcement actions against five other local funeral homes for not having proper licenses. Three of the funeral homes did not even have a basic business license, according to the DCRA.

"Funeral homes provide an important service at a stressful time," said Linda Argok interim director of the DCRA (DCRA Press Release, May 30, 2007). "DCRA will protect our vulnerable residents by taking strong enforcement action against these businesses and sending a signal that this agency will not allow businesses to operate without the proper permits or certification."

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Laura Blatt

Former Crematory Owners Plead Guilty to Negligence

Christina Cole — Fri, 04 May 2007 22:52:58 GMT

The former owners of Bayview Crematory that was closed over two years ago after investigators discovered remains and a body in a broken cooler - have agreed to plead guilty to several charges. Charges included negligence and the filing of false tax returns.

The crematorium that handled close to 2,000 bodies each year from funeral homes in Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire had been operating for over six years without proper registration or inspection by the state. They were closed in February 2005.

Last year, a judge ruled that a lawsuit against her and her son, alleging funeral home negligence in the handling of bodies, consumer protection violations and misrepresentation, could be classified as a class-action case.

Wallace had sold Bayview Crematorium to his mother and her husband for $1, but continued to be involved in the business, according to court papers. Authorities said their investigation of Bayview Crematorium turned up numerous cases of forged cremation certificates.

In 2005, Wallace's Massachusetts funeral director's license was suspended for five years for deceptive practices and unprofessional conduct, including his violation of a Massachusetts regulation prohibiting funeral home owners from having a financial interest in a crematorium.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Christina Cole