A family in New Mexico is suing two funeral homes in New Mexico and Utah after a bag of personal effects delivered to them after their mother’s death was found to contain her brain.

The family says they received the bag from DeVargas Funeral Home and Crematory of the Espanola Valley. They noticed a foul smell coming from the bag, and were shocked when they opened it. Representatives for the DeVargas Funeral Home blame the Serenicare Funeral Home in Draper, Utah for the incident. The woman had died in an auto accident in Utah in September last year. The family has now filed a lawsuit against both the funeral homes, as well as Inman Shipping Worldwide, which flew the body to New Mexico.

According to Serenicare, it is a common practice in an accident case where there has been a head injury, to place the brain into a bag instead of trying to reinsert it into the damaged head. However, Serenicare reps deny that they were responsible for combining the woman’s brain and personal effects into a single bag.  According to the Utah-based funeral home, the common practice in cases where there has been a violent accident is for employees to encourage the victim’s family to discard the personal effects. This is because these effects are very often scattered with blood and human body matter, which would be extremely distressing for family members to see.

As of now, both funeral homes are blaming each other for the terrible mix up.  There is still no information about how a bag containing the effects as well as the brain, was delivered to the family. It seems abundantly clear however, that there was major negligence at some point in the operations.

It’s hard to imagine the distress that the family of this woman must have felt. Unfortunately, as California death care attorneys see, mishandling of corpses is not as uncommon or infrequent as you would like to believe. In cases like this, there is negligent infliction of emotional distress. This means that

1. The family and loved ones of the deceased are likely to suffer distress by such mishandling; and
2. The defendants likely knew that their negligence would cause emotional anguish to the family.

Determining damages in such claims may not be that cut and dry, since a value is being placed on the emotional suffering of the family. The damages may also include punitive damages, depending on the severity of the negligence. It’s very important that families consult with an experienced California death care lawyer who will be able to help them understand their rights under the law.