Their mother passed away in July 2022. The family had trusted the funeral home in Texarkana with their loved ones for decades, several family members over the years, and they turned to the same funeral home to prepare their mother and carry out her services. They brought the funeral home the clothing and belongings she was to be dressed in.
On the morning of the visitation, the family arrived early to see her one last time before the service. The funeral home directed them to the casket, and inside was a woman they had never seen, dressed in their mother’s clothes and belongings. When the family said it was not their mother, the funeral home argued with them and insisted that it was.
Only after a search did the funeral home find their mother’s body in the back, still unprepared for the visitation. With guests about to arrive, the staff pulled the family’s belongings off the stranger, hurried to dress and prepare their mother, and left her looking nothing like herself, her face covered in heavy makeup she never wore in life, her wig unkempt and out of place, and makeup from the other woman’s clothing transferred onto hers. The visitation was delayed.
We filed suit in Bowie County. At its core, this case is about a funeral home that lost track of the people in its care, that dressed a stranger in their mother’s clothes, placed that stranger in the casket meant for her, and then argued with a grieving family instead of admitting the mistake.
The failures compounded from there: the wrong body presented at the viewing, the family’s own mother left unprepared until the last minute, and a rushed, careless preparation that ignored her final wishes and the way she looked in life. A family that had trusted this funeral home for generations was left to wonder whether their mother had been treated with any care at all.
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 funeral home account for placing a stranger in their mother’s casket, for dressing that stranger in the family’s belongings, for failing to prepare their mother for her own visitation, and for arguing with the family instead of owning the error.
A funeral home’s first duty is to know whose body it is preparing. A family should never have to identify their own mother for a funeral home, or fight to be believed when they do.
Learn more about our Texas funeral home negligence practice.
