Recent Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Andre Dawson and his brother Vincent Brown were struck with a lawsuit targeting their funeral home business in Florida. The Guardianship Program of Dade County is suing the brothers for allegedly reneging on a deal to provide prepaid memorial services and burials for deceased clients. The agency claims they were turned away by the funeral home when they tried to make arrangements for their clients.

Clients of the Guardianship Program are elderly, mentally disabled or otherwise deemed unable to care for themselves. The non-profit agency is funded by the county as well as the state of Florida and provides around-the-clock medical care for those who cannot afford it. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs claim that one man's corpse lay in limbo for weeks because Dawson's Grace Memorial Funeral Home refused to accept the remains. Their lawsuit contends that the Guardianship Program purchased seven prepaid memorial services in 2006 under the home's original owners for more than $40,000. They were purchased to cover the funeral costs for seven wards of the state who were all still alive at the time of the purchase. Allegedly, the new owners, Dawson and Brown, refused to honor the pre-paid funerals and the agency was forced to make other arrangements in one of the cases.

Andre Dawson and Vincent Brown say they too were duped by the previous owner, Samuel Solomon, and that he pocketed the money given to him to cover the seven memorial services. They contend that since they did not make the initial agreement with the Guardianship, they shouldn't have to honor the deal made by Solomon. Additionally, Brown claims that Solomon was not licensed to make such a deal with the agency and therefore the deal is invalid. Lawyers for the agency, however, argue that Dawson and Brown assumed liability for all outstanding contracts once they purchased the business. The lawsuit is seeking $15,000 in damages.

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.