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Man Suing Over Wrong Body in Casket

Funeral Industry News December 22, 2009

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NEW YORK — A man alleges in a lawsuit a New York funeral home mistakenly sent a different body to the Dominican Republic instead of his mother’s remains.

The son of Ana Belen Fernandez is suing the R.G. Ortiz Funeral Home for allegedly sending the body of Demetio De Leon to the Dominican Republic with paperwork incorrectly identifying him as Fernandez, the New York Post said Monday.

Attorney Mitchell Shapiro, who is representing Fernandez’s son, said the suit is the result of the family’s “shock of opening the casket and seeing this old guy there when they expected to see mom.”

After the July 26 incident, Fernandez’s body was later found in Florida and was promptly shipped to the Dominican Republic for burial, the report said.

“By then, the body had begun to decompose,” the family alleges in the suit.

The funeral home did not offer a comment on the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages.

Source: UPI.com