Texas Family Suing After Tragic Funeral Home Mix up
- Posted on June 20, 2012 at 9:38pm by
Becket Adams
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After Sheila Sterling died of cancer last September, her family hoped for one last peaceful farewell. What they got instead was a tragic and painful ordeal.
The family had planned for an open casket viewing before the funeral service. However, just before the viewing was to take place, Kimberly Byers, the sister of the deceased, says the Gonzalez Funeral Home and Crematory informed them that there would be no viewing.
Why? Because they had the wrong body.
“I don’t think we could truly express how we feel,” said Kimberly Byers.
“The remains they had were not of our sister. They were of a white male, and they weren’t sure how that occurred,” Byers says. “Everyone was shocked. We actually had a family member who exited the room because they were so upset.”
The only thing that could make this worse is if the funeral home went ahead and cremated — oh, they did.
Sheila Sterling was cremated and her ashes presented to the family (although they have no way to prove whether or not it’s really Sterling).
Understandably, Byers and her family feel as if they didn’t get a chance to say their goodbyes.
“And that’s something we will never have,” Byers said.
So where does it go from here?
“Last September, the family filed a complaint with the Texas Funeral Service Commission, which has been investigating. And now the family has filed this lawsuit against the funeral home and two mortuaries,” CBS DFW reports.
“In the lawsuit, Byers and her family claim the transportation company, Global Mortuary Affairs of Mesquite delivered Sterling’s body to the wrong place, the J.E. Keever Mortuary in Ennis, instead of the Gonzalez Funeral Home,” the report adds.
The problem, according to the lawsuit, is that by the time the mistake was discovered, Sterling’s body had already been cremated. The lawsuit also accuses Keever Mortuary and Gonzalez Funeral Home of breaking state rules on proper body identification.
“Yes, we’re angry, we’re very angry,” Byers said.
The Texas Funeral Service Commission sent the Byers family a letter stating that “a violation of statute and/or rule has been committed and assessed an administrative action and/or penalty against the licensee…”
However, the letter doesn’t say which firm was guilty of the violation.
“The state says the business that is cited will have 30 days to decide whether to accept the penalty or request a hearing or mediation in the case. Keever Mortuary and Global Mortuary didn’t return our calls,” CBS DFW reports.
“You just will never know, how do you put closure on that? You never can, you never can,” Byers said.
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danielfairborn
Posted on June 25, 2012 at 1:39pmTalk about mental anguish, someone really dropped the ball on this one. I realize that among the 2.5M deaths in the US (see aCremation) some human error can be expected, but this is one mistake that could have EASILY been avoided. No excuse for this.
Report Post »theblazerunner
Posted on June 21, 2012 at 4:19pmharsh and unkind.
“” hail the victorious dead…”".
sad, no honor anymore…remember what was done to our fallen beloved vets.
Report Post »Black Manta
Posted on June 21, 2012 at 3:31pmToo many jackasses on here…you tubobs are @ the end of your days, thus saith the Lord…
Report Post »battles
Posted on June 21, 2012 at 1:57pmUnfortunate. What is also unfortunate is that when anything bad happens to a black, there is an automatic lawsuit.
Report Post »bmb776
Posted on June 21, 2012 at 4:45pmGet a grip. Morons like you are why the right is constantly accused of racism. You should be ashamed.
Report Post »Jack Bandit
Posted on June 22, 2012 at 2:46amYou can’t seriously be that insensitive! They have good reason to sue. Anyone would.
Report Post »tckid17
Posted on June 21, 2012 at 1:15pm“Fast Buck Funeral Home” Where your up front money is preserved and they could care less with the body and the grieving families. I hope the family sues that business to its fiscal grave.
Report Post »MOLLYPITCHER
Posted on June 21, 2012 at 11:44amMy prayers for this family, After loosing my little brother to a sudden and violent death, we were unable to have an open casket. I wanted so badly to see his body. Not being able to see him made it so hard to come to grips with the fact that he was gone. So I understand why an open casket was so important to them.
Report Post »teddrunk
Posted on June 21, 2012 at 10:00amWhat about the family of the male they had in the casket? Do they at least get a $50 gas card?
Report Post »loriann12
Posted on June 22, 2012 at 7:08amMakes you wonder doesn’t it? Maybe they wanted his body cremated and they’ll get a free cremation now. If that were the case with me, that my loved one was supposed to be cremated but showed up at someone else’s funeral, and I already had ashes, I’d wonder who the heck I had? In that case, I wouldn’t sue, But I would demand a free cremation of MY loved one. It doesn’t however help the family that wanted an open casket.
Report Post »facilitiesmgr
Posted on June 21, 2012 at 8:26amIt‘s too bad that this mistake occurred but suing them won’t solve the problem of their grief. The funeral home should certainly give back any payments that had been made. Mistakes happen and if there was nothing done maliciously, let it go.
Part of the problem is that we are such a litigious society and too many people see themselves as victims. If we see ourselves as victims we will never move on in life. We will always be looking to someone else to either take care of us or solve our problems for us.
Mistakes happen, get over it.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on June 21, 2012 at 9:44amIt is just a… Breach Of Contract case… and nothing more!
Report Post »Halloween
Posted on June 21, 2012 at 4:02pmIts not just a mistake. Islamic religion says that the body can not be cremated and has to be buried in accordance with Islamic law, or no 72 virgins!
Report Post »Turin
Posted on June 21, 2012 at 8:02amMy condolences to the family. That’s got to be a difficult thing to deal with. So much for closure and moving on after the funeral.
It sounds like we need another government oversight program to watchdog the funerary business.
Report Post »How about the Committee Overseeing Family Funerary Identification Nationally (COFFIN)?
Sniper48
Posted on June 21, 2012 at 5:15amThis kind of thing happens in hospitals all the time. Just think how bad it will be under obamacare!!!
Report Post »loriann12
Posted on June 21, 2012 at 7:08amYou need to call up a map. Ennis is a LONG way from Mesquite. I live near Mesquite, and it takes over an hour to drive to Ennis. How can you screw something up that badly? I’d sue too.
Report Post »CrawfishFestival2
Posted on June 21, 2012 at 4:59amWow – There is truly no ovesight with Funeral Homes – and crematoriums.
*
The Funeral Service Commission in my State – is refusing to allow a group of MONKS to make wooden coffins – to support themselves and their abbey –
because the Funeral Parlors and Directors complained it would cut ino the profits of the funeral homes!!!
The MONKS filed a lawsuit.
Report Post »morguerat76
Posted on June 21, 2012 at 10:47amWow, really, no oversight. Try being a funeral director and say that again. Please stop commenting on things you have no idea about. The funeral profession is one the the most regulated, non-medical professions. And your little story about your state refusing the sale of caskets from a 3rd party because it will cut into profits is completely false. Under FTC rules, no state agency or independent funeral home can refuse the sale of 3rd party merchandise. Try researching your “facts” before you make yourself look like a liberal ass again.
Report Post »Zoe
Posted on June 21, 2012 at 1:19pmWhy don’t you tell your lawyer you want them to use your computers, or your pediatrician to use your uncle’s surgical tools?
Our firm won’t drop ship urns to Funeral Directors unless they order it!
morguerat76 is right…
On the other hand, due to corporate lobbyists in Florida, regulation has mandated:
We can have no idea someone wants to do business with us, $2500 fine for violation, and we may not move or change management at our facility. This after 15 years of a perfect track record!
It is the large corporations’ way of dominating a market without breaking the law by using too many death care providers / Funeral Homes in a given area.
The Corporates keep lawyers on retainer to play the statuary Dog & Pony shows while the independents are busy serving.……
It is a very broken branch of regulation where no one has dared to investigate its practices…..
Where’s our Friend James O’Keef……?
Report Post »eaglescout1998
Posted on June 21, 2012 at 12:33amAfter reading through some of these comments, I must ask this one question: Have you no decency?
The purpose of a funeral is not to say goodbye to a corpse, but to provide some comfort and a sense of closure to those that are left behind. Because of this funeral home’s screw-up, this family won’t get that feeling of closure. If the body is nothing more than an “empty shell of decomposing dead evil foul flesh,” why do be bring our fallen soilders home instead of just leaving their corpses there?
Emotional “pain and suffering” (whatever that means) aside, this family paid this funeral home for a service, a service they did not receive. At the very least, the funeral home should reimburse the family for the funeral costs (since they didn’t get one).
Report Post »bornagaincowgirl
Posted on June 21, 2012 at 12:07amWhat a horrible mistake, that poor family.
Report Post »bjornskis
Posted on June 20, 2012 at 11:37pmat least get a refund of the funeral costs
Report Post »freedomisasfreedomdoes
Posted on June 20, 2012 at 11:35pmMy condolences to the family. For their loss. It is awful what happened. Esp since they more than likely wanted to say their goodbyes to her.
Report Post »js1964
Posted on June 20, 2012 at 11:20pmMistakes happens. That is life. Stop suing! We would be a better country if we all agreed to stop suing! Enough is Enough! Just forgive.
Report Post »ashestoashes
Posted on June 20, 2012 at 11:39pmTragic would be if the lady was embalmed while still alive..This is a frivolous lawsuit..Lawsuits are supposed to be to recover monetary loss due to someone’ neglect or intentional actions..Tragic is that a family will try to capitalize on a family member’s death..and tragic is when people like this even make it in the news and their situation is described as “tragic”.
Report Post »CatB
Posted on June 21, 2012 at 12:20amI agree … the funeral home should have offered to make it as right as they could … a refund of all money charged to the family and perhaps a bit extra for “suffering”. In exchange the family should have agreed not to sue.
Report Post »SerikFox
Posted on June 21, 2012 at 2:16amI would agree with you had they not cremated the body. The oversight on that should have been much better; they deserve to lose some money with this.
Report Post »JACKTHETOAD
Posted on June 21, 2012 at 3:47amI say SUE the SNOT out of them, and close them down! They’re supposed to be professionals and remove the burden of grief from the family, not increase it exponentially! This is unforgivable, imo. A Sacred Trust hs been violated.
Report Post »Skrewedretiree
Posted on June 20, 2012 at 11:18pmAnd yet, after two years of asking, the Obama Regime finally doctors up a Birth Certificate, still under scrutiny and dispute…..
Yet we are to forgive and forget in this case? If you can’t keep decent records on a dead body, how can you swear, after two years of tinkering, that the man in the Oval Office is really a citizen? How can you accept the votes of the electorate, if we do not require ID of the voter?
I know, I know, there will be an army after me and putting me down for what I just said. BUT: It all comes down to trusting the system, and the knowledge that the system is trustworthy.
Well, it’s not.
Report Post »Charles
Posted on June 20, 2012 at 11:05pmBad mistake but a lawsuit? They didn’t get a chance to “say goodbye”? Goodbye to a body, not their relative – they can celebrate with the money they get from the lawsuit I guess.
Report Post »MRMANN
Posted on June 21, 2012 at 5:27amSome folks really need that last good-bye, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Report Post »rickc34
Posted on June 20, 2012 at 10:39pmI guess it is okay to mock this family if that is what you want to do..but you would do the same if it happened to you. If you pay for goods or services and do not receive said goods or services then it is your right. Look final goodbyes are important to some but this family was robbed of that option. Cremate your body cost less than a grand in most cases. I want to be cremated and have my ashes dusted over a ows so my dust gets in their eyes and makes them cry.
Report Post »Jezreel
Posted on June 20, 2012 at 10:30pmIt was a really bad mistake but when a person is dead, there are not there anymore. It is just an empty shell of decomposing dead evil foul flesh. The soul and the spirit has left the body. If my body was lost I am sure my family knows the Lord enough that they would not get bent all out of shape because of that because they know I would not care.
Report Post »Stoic one
Posted on June 21, 2012 at 12:58amdead evil foul flesh.
There is nothing evil nor foul about the dead flesh. If it is put in the ground untreated, the ground microbes will be nurtured by that flesh; and after that the components left by those microbes will nourish the trees and shrubs for years to come.
Report Post »MOLLYPITCHER
Posted on June 21, 2012 at 11:59amHonestly Jezreel, I don‘t want my family spending a bunch of money to bury me when I’m gone. But there is a lot of healing that happens when you can see the body. It is true that we are created to live forever in spirit, but as humans, the body is what we see and know. Please have some compassion.
Report Post »chrinortay
Posted on June 20, 2012 at 10:10pmWell said Chet. There is no point in suing. Money will not make what happened un-happen. It won’t even make the funeral home do the right thing. It will, however, up the cost to everybody else who uses a mortuary. You know you will!
Report Post »MrButcher
Posted on June 20, 2012 at 10:02pmThe Funeral Industry is such a racket.
When you die, donate your body to science. Its free and it won’t put your loved ones in a situation where they have to deal with the grief hustlers.
At least, that’s my advice.
Report Post »Magyar
Posted on June 20, 2012 at 9:59pmThe funeral home made a huge mistake… a major one!
Clearly, this family should sue the Gonzalez Funeral Home for gross negligence!
So sorry for the family!
Report Post »Chet Hempstead
Posted on June 20, 2012 at 9:57pmI’m not saying this is okay, but you know what? If you just go ahead and say goodbye to that dead white dude that you never even met, he’ll give you exactly the same answer that you would have gotten from the right dead body.
Report Post »DGuy
Posted on June 20, 2012 at 10:04pmSounds to me like people looking for free money…
Report Post »MrButcher
Posted on June 20, 2012 at 10:05pmTrue.
But ceremonial burial is a hallmark of our species. It should be respected. And if someone PAYS YOU MONEY to facilitate the grieving process, you’d better damn well make sure you have the right corpse!
Sue away.
Report Post »alpha2omega47
Posted on June 20, 2012 at 9:56pmWhatever it takes to make a buck. Why not just let the dead rest in peace ~ where ever they are? Idiots.
Report Post »Kisses6350
Posted on June 21, 2012 at 7:00amIdiots????? What would you have said if it were your loved one? Some have no shame…..***Smirks***
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