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Settlement sought in cremation |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Monday, 14 February 2005 |
Summit County office sent wrong body, lawsuit says
By Phil Trexler
Beacon Journal
Summit County attorneys are working to settle a lawsuit with a family after the medical examiner's office sent the wrong body to a funeral home for cremation, court records show.
The case stems from a lawsuit initially filed a year ago against the Billow Funeral Home in Fairlawn by survivors of a 75-year-old Akron man, who died in August 2003.
The original suit claimed the funeral home cremated the remains of Donald Carlos Forester without permission and before the family viewed the body or decided on a funeral home.
While the original case worked its way through court, attorneys for the family discovered that a county medical examiner's investigator inadvertently switched Forester's identification with that of a dead man half his age.
The office of Medical Examiner Dr. Lisa Kohler was subsequently added as a defendant in the suit.
Forester's son, daughter and brother contend the ``wrongful cremation'' was ``reckless, outrageous and utterly intolerable in a civilized community.''
The three sides met in mediation on Jan. 21 but failed to reach a settlement. Talks are expected to continue.
Kohler deferred comment to Summit County civil prosecutors, who represent her office in legal matters. A prosecutor's spokesman said no one was available to comment.
J. Bruce Hunsicker, an Akron attorney representing the funeral home, placed blame of the mix-up on the medical examiner's office.
``It certainly would have been avoidable had the medical examiner's office given the right body to the funeral home,'' he said.
James Collum, a Canton attorney representing the family of Donald Forester, would not discuss the settlement negotiations other than to say the sides are far apart.
Similar lawsuits around the country have resulted in jury verdicts for as much as $950,000.
``Imagine if you had a loved one who died and you couldn't go through the grieving process the natural way,'' Collum said Friday. ``Imagine if you wanted a ceremony and that was taken away from you and instead someone hands you ashes and says, `Here's your significant other.' I think anyone who has lost a loved one can identify with that.''
Forester's daughter, Vicki Jamison of Trinway; his son, Gregory A. Yurjevic of Coshocton; and his brother, Michael Foster, are plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
Court records show that Donald Forester's body was found by Akron police in the kitchen of his Fairview Avenue home in early August of 2003. He died of cardiovascular disease.
His body was taken to the medical examiner's office on Aug. 4 and his family, all of whom lived out of town, were notified. That same day, his body was taken to the funeral home and cremated.
The family contends that Forester's body was misidentified as one belonging to Joseph Kleshinski, a 32-year-old Warren man, whose remains were also being held at the medical examiner's office.
The family alleges medical examiner's investigator David Rose placed a brown paper bag labeled as containing Kleshinski's personal belongings atop a body bag holding Forester's body.
Forester's body was then taken to the funeral home, where workers believed they were cremating Kleshinski's body, the suit alleges.
The family contends neither the medical examiner's office nor the funeral home checked inside the body bag for an ID tag attached to Forester prior to the cremation.
Hunsicker, the attorney representing the funeral home, said ``there's a good reason'' funeral home workers didn't look inside the bag, but he declined to elaborate. He did say both bodies were badly decomposed.
The error was discovered Aug. 6 by another medical examiner employee and the Forester family was notified. Kleshinski's body was later cremated.
``This was a mistake that would not have occurred had someone from either the medical examiner's office or the funeral home ascertained the identity of the individual. This was certainly a preventable mistake,'' Collum said.
The family is suing for intentional infliction of emotional distress, mishandling of a dead body, reckless and wanton conduct, breach of Ohio public policy and negligence.
If no deal is struck, a jury trial is scheduled for May 23 in the courtroom of Common Pleas Judge Elinore Marsh Stormer.
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/10881189.htm?1c |
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Taphophilia?
taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)
ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"
DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries
Quote Repository
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.” George S. Patton, Jr.
Shirtless and Sculpted
The Men of Mortuaries 2008 Calendar is now available! All sale proceeds benefit KAMMCARES, a breast cancer foundation.
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