Their mother passed away in October 2022. Days later, a daughter went to the funeral home in Dallas and arranged for her mother’s cremation, an urn, the cremation itself, and death certificates.
Then the waiting began. The family called the funeral home again and again for a cremation date. Each time, the funeral home reassured them it was simply waiting on the coroner’s signature to move forward.
After weeks with no real information, the family went to the coroner directly. The coroner told them the funeral home had never sent the paperwork needed to proceed. When the family confronted the funeral home, the funeral home insisted it had faxed the paperwork, then changed course and said their mother’s primary care physician had to sign off first.
More weeks passed with poor communication and conflicting explanations. The family asked only to be told what was happening, or to see their mother. By their account, they were left without their mother’s ashes and without any clear information about her whereabouts or what had been done with her.
We filed suit in Dallas County and took the sworn testimony of the funeral home’s Chief Staffing Officer, the representative who signed the family’s paperwork. The records showed the death-certificate filing had been rejected because the physician listed on it was not the mother’s doctor, a problem that sat unresolved while the family was being told the holdup was the coroner.
Under questioning, the funeral home’s representative could not give clear answers about basic steps in the process. Public Dallas County court records show the funeral home’s parent company has been sued more than thirty times in the last five years.
We brought claims for negligence and for violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the Texas Occupations Code. We made the funeral home produce its records and account, on the record, for weeks of shifting explanations, for paperwork that was never properly filed, and for leaving a family without answers about their own mother.
A family that pays a funeral home to care for their mother is owed the truth about where she is and what was done with her. Shifting stories and silence are not an answer.
We brought claims for negligence and for violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the Texas Occupations Code. We made the funeral home produce its records and account, on the record, for weeks of shifting explanations, for paperwork that was never properly filed, and for leaving a family without answers about their own mother.
A family that pays a funeral home to care for their mother is owed the truth about where she is and what was done with her. Shifting stories and silence are not an answer.
