The daughter’s mother passed away in Harris County in January 2018. The daughter hired the funeral home for removal from the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences and cremation.
On the morning of January 19, 2018, two funeral directors picked up the mother’s body as part of a multi-body removal, eight bodies on a single run. They placed her on a gurney inside the funeral home’s custom removal vehicle. The gurney’s stop was not set. The side roll-up door was not latched.
Driving on Old Spanish Trail in Houston, the gurney rolled out of the vehicle. The mother’s body went with it. The funeral home kept driving. A good Samaritan and her daughter found the body strapped to the gurney in a ditch near Greenbriar and Old Spanish Trail and called 911.
Houston police and the Harris County medical examiner came to the scene and returned the body to the medical examiner’s office. The funeral home didn’t realize the body was missing until it was contacted by police. The funeral home never told the daughter what had happened. She learned about it from someone else.
We sued the funeral home in Harris County. We obtained the company’s policies and procedures, training records, and internal communications about the removal. We took sworn testimony from the funeral home’s Executive Director and from the funeral directors involved in the removal. The funeral home’s Executive Director told local news, on the record at the time: “It appears a door was not properly secured and it allowed the decedent to come out.”
The funeral home’s own procedures required securing the gurney and closing every door before driving. On this removal, neither was done. The funeral home was performing a multi-body pickup and failed to follow its own process.
We brought claims for negligence, gross negligence, and violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. We made the funeral home produce its policies, training records, and internal communications. We took testimony from the funeral directors who performed the removal and from the executive responsible for supervising them.
A funeral home does not get to drive away from a body it lost on the side of the road and leave the family to find out from a stranger.
We brought claims for negligence, gross negligence, and violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. We made the funeral home produce its policies, training records, and internal communications. We took testimony from the funeral directors who performed the removal and from the executive responsible for supervising them.
A funeral home does not get to drive away from a body it lost on the side of the road and leave the family to find out from a stranger.
The matter resolved between the daughter and the funeral home. The terms of the resolution are confidential.
