After her son passed away in April 2021, a Dallas mother arranged for his cremation through the crematory. She personally signed the cremation authorization, the document Texas law requires, naming herself as the authorizing agent and the only person to whom her son’s cremains could be released, in person or by mail. Her name, address, and phone number were on that form.
After the cremation, the crematory gave away part of her son’s ashes to a man who came in and asked for some of the cremains. Staff handed them over without confirming who he was; only afterward did anyone ask how he was related, and he identified himself as a cousin of the deceased, not the mother, and not anyone authorized on the form. He left with a portion of her son’s ashes.
No one notified the mother that her son’s cremains had been given to someone else, even though she was named on the authorization with her contact information. By the time the error came to light, the remaining cremains had been buried in a cemetery, making it impossible for her to recover and reunite her son’s ashes. A mother who had followed every requirement was left unable to bring all of her son home.
Texas law is specific about this for a reason. Under the Texas Health and Safety Code, a crematory may release cremated remains only to the person named on the cremation authorization, to the funeral establishment that delivered the body, or according to the authorizing agent’s written directions. The whole point of that authorization is to make sure a person’s ashes go to the right hands and only the right hands. The crematory did not follow it.
Instead, the crematory released part of the cremains to a walk-in who was never authorized and whose identity and relationship were not confirmed before the ashes were handed over. The petition alleges the crematory failed to abide by the cremation authorization, released the cremains to someone other than the authorizing agent, failed to get her written consent to release them to anyone else, failed to notify her of the error, and failed to train its staff on the proper handling and release of cremains, violations of the release-of-cremains requirements of Chapter 716 of the Texas Health and Safety Code and the funeral-practice standards of Chapter 651 of the Texas Occupations Code.
We filed suit in Dallas County and brought claims for negligence and negligence per se, grounded in the crematory’s violations of the cremation-authorization and release-of-cremains requirements of the Texas Health and Safety Code and the funeral-practice standards of the Texas Occupations Code. We made the crematory account for releasing the cremains to an unauthorized person, for failing to confirm who that person was, for failing to get the mother’s consent, for failing to notify her of the error, and for failing to train its staff on the rules that exist precisely to prevent this.
A mother who signs the authorization and is named as the only person entitled to her son’s ashes is supposed to be the one who receives them. Giving part of her son away to a stranger, and leaving her with no way to ever recover them, is the kind of careless failure these laws are written to prevent, and the crematory had to answer for it.
We filed suit in Dallas County and brought claims for negligence and negligence per se, grounded in the crematory’s violations of the cremation-authorization and release-of-cremains requirements of the Texas Health and Safety Code and the funeral-practice standards of the Texas Occupations Code. We made the crematory account for releasing the cremains to an unauthorized person, for failing to confirm who that person was, for failing to get the mother’s consent, for failing to notify her of the error, and for failing to train its staff on the rules that exist precisely to prevent this.
A mother who signs the authorization and is named as the only person entitled to her son’s ashes is supposed to be the one who receives them. Giving part of her son away to a stranger, and leaving her with no way to ever recover them, is the kind of careless failure these laws are written to prevent, and the crematory had to answer for it.
