The family had purchased a six-space plot at the cemetery in Houston long before they needed it, one space for each member of the family. In April 2024, one of the sisters passed away, and the family arranged her embalming, burial, and final disposition through the cemetery.
On the morning of April 20, 2024, the family arrived at the cemetery for the graveside service. A stranger had been buried that same morning in the space where their sister was supposed to be laid to rest. The grave the family had paid for was already occupied by someone they had never met.
Because of the cemetery’s carelessness, the family could not bury their sister on the day of her service. Her body had to be stored for more than a week, and the delay caused severe deterioration. The cemetery did not remove the stranger in time, and the family’s sister ultimately had to be buried in a different grave within their own plot.
We filed suit in Harris County. The cemetery is owned and operated by a national company that runs more than nineteen hundred funeral homes, cemeteries, and crematories across forty-four states. Each location is marketed as if it were a separate, locally owned business. Unless a family reads the fine print, they would never know that the “mom-and-pop” funeral home they trusted is one location in a national web of corporations.
Behind that local-sounding name, the basics failed. The grave was not prepared for the family’s sister. A stranger was placed in her space. No one corrected the mistake in time to hold the service as planned, and the family was left to grieve while their loved one waited more than a week for burial.
We brought claims for negligence and for violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, including the failure to perform services in a good and workmanlike manner. We made the company account for burying a stranger in the family’s plot, for failing to prepare the grave, for failing to remove the stranger in time, and for failing to bury the family’s sister on the day of her own service.
A cemetery does not get to sell a family the dignity of a “local funeral home,” bury a stranger in the space they paid for, and leave them standing at a graveside service with nowhere to lay their sister to rest.
We brought claims for negligence and for violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, including the failure to perform services in a good and workmanlike manner. We made the company account for burying a stranger in the family’s plot, for failing to prepare the grave, for failing to remove the stranger in time, and for failing to bury the family’s sister on the day of her own service.
A cemetery does not get to sell a family the dignity of a “local funeral home,” bury a stranger in the space they paid for, and leave them standing at a graveside service with nowhere to lay their sister to rest.
