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Lawsuit alleges funeral home corporation, insurance company |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Friday, 10 June 2005 |
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A lawsuit filed against a funeral home corporation and an insurance company alleges that thousands of Kentuckians have been scammed into paying more than they should have for funerals.
The suit, filed in Jefferson County, accuses American Memorial Life Insurance Co. and SCI Kentucky Funeral Services of dishonest business practices.
Lawyers who filed the suit are seeking class-action status, and they say more than 10,000 people could be eligible to join the suit.
A spokesman for SCI, which is based in Houston, said he had not seen the lawsuit and couldn't comment on it. Greg Bolton said the claims sound "opposite to what we believe in. We don't operate that way."
Two Louisville residents, Mary Young and Sherman Bussell, filed the suit last week. The suit claims that employees for the insurance company posed as funeral workers and encouraged customers to spread out funeral payments over an extended time, as much as 10 years, to defray costs.
But the suit alleges that customers actually were buying life insurance, and the cost of the "pre-arranged funeral" exceeded the face value of the funeral by more than 30 percent.
The suit also alleges that insurance salesmen working on commission would pose as funeral personnel inside the funeral homes, designating themselves as "after-care counselors" or to gain trust and sell customers the insurance.
The attorney who filed the suit, Nancy Schook, said insurance agents would gain access to potential customers and then go to the person's home and "introduce themselves as people from the funeral home, when they were actually working for and paid by the insurance company."
In Young's case, the 72-year-old was contacted by a person claiming he was with the Arch L. Heady and Son funeral homes. Her pre-arranged funeral bill came to about $7,600 after she chose the casket and made other arrangements, Schook said. But after Young agreed to pay the bill over five years, she found the total had risen to more than $10,000, Schook said. Schook said Young thought she had been dealing with funeral home employees, but later realized they worked for American Memorial Life.
Young asked for a refund but was denied, Schook said.
Bolton, the spokesman for SCI, said there are other reasons why a pre-arranged funeral paid for over several years could end up costing more.
"There are variable costs from outside suppliers that we have no control over," he said.
Jason Salamun, a spokesman for American Memorial Life, declined to comment on the suit.
http://www.wkyt.com/Global/story.asp?S=3376555 |
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