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Quoting Death in Early Modern England: The Poetics of Epitaphs Beyond the Tomb By Scott L. Newstok
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A memoir about living beside a cemetery--and about the members of my family who came to rest at Roselawn Cemetery in Tallahassee, Florida. Please visit Kitsune Books for more information.
Graveyards of Chicago: The People, History, Art, and Lore of Cook County Cemeteries By Matt Hucke And Ursula Bielski.
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Epitaphs: The Magazine for Cemetery Lovers By Cemetery Lovers
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Guardians of the Soul: Angels and Innocents, Mourners and Saints with photography by John Bower and foreword by Claude Cookman
Indiana's remarkable cemetery sculpture is now available. Please visit Studio Indiana for more information.
West Springfield Massachusetts: Stories Carved in Stone by Rusty Clark
Features information on early New England gravestone carvers with more than two hundred photos and illustrations. Please visit the Dog Pond Press website.
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Attorney general sues casket supplier |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Sunday, 22 August 2004 |
August 21, 2004
By Torsten Ove, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"You can count on us!"
So say the ads for Celestial Burial Case, a supplier of caskets that has operated in Greensburg, Pittsburgh and Monroeville.
But state Attorney General Jerry Pappert says you can't count on this company -- for anything.
His office yesterday filed suit against Celestial and its owner, Joseph M. Stabile, saying the pre-need funeral business has ripped off customers by failing to deliver caskets and honor its contracts in Pennsylvania and nine other states.
The attorney general's Bureau of Consumer Protection also asked a Common Pleas Court judge for an injunction to bar Stabile from advertising or accepting anymore money from customers.
"The alleged conduct in this case is not only illegal, it is reprehensible," Pappert said at a news conference. "You're taking advantage of people, sometimes when they are hurting the most."
Pappert said one 85-year-old Allegheny County woman paid Celestial $1,400 for her husband's casket. But after he died last April, Stabile didn't deliver the casket and she was forced to pay another $1,600 to the funeral home that conducted the services.
She said Stabile agreed to reimburse her but never did.
According to the suit, Stabile also failed to deposit a total of $22,000 in payments from 15 customers into trust accounts as required by state law.
"It is outrageous to me that elderly and grief-stricken consumers with pre-need funeral contracts would have to start over with arrangements or pay additional expenses to bury their loved ones," Pappert said.
"These consumers, through no fault of their own, were put into the very situations that they desperately wanted to avoid and could not afford."
Stabile, who lives in Monroeville and runs Celestial Burial Case and another company, Celestial Life Planning Inc., said he'll review the complaints but insisted that the vast majority of his customers are satisfied.
"Please understand that our company has over 100,000 clients," he said in a statement. "We strive to ensure that all merchandise is promptly provided to our clients. The handful of complaints solicited by the attorney general's office and the Pennsylvania Funeral Directors Association, while important in nature, represent less than 1 percent of our total business."
Stabile also said he has operated at 33 East Pittsburgh Street in Greensburg for six years, but Pappert's suit said he no longer has office space there or at his other addresses on Butler Street in Lawrenceville or Mosside Boulevard in Monroeville.
The questionable addresses are an important part of the case, because many people who have complained say Stabile has repeatedly moved his company without telling anyone and then not returned phone calls asking for refunds, essentially stealing their money.
Dennis Mays, 66, of Manchester, said he paid about $1,000 for two caskets, one for himself and another for his mother, Dorothy, 86. But when he tried to pay off the last $233, he found that Celestial's phone was disconnected and the company had moved without telling him.
Trying to find where Celestial had gone, he called another company in the phone book called Celestial Life Planning. That, he said, turned out to be the new name, but Stabile hadn't told his customers. Mays left a message but said no one ever called him back.
Now he wants a refund but says he can't get one.
"I haven't received any money. I haven't received any phone calls," he said. "Obviously, this is not a company of integrity."
Various fraternal organizations that once had contracts with Celestial don't think so, either.
Celestial advertised its merchandise in American Legion magazine and other fraternal publications and on its Web site.
To promote sales among veterans and police officers, Stabile offered discounts and specially designed caskets with logos and emblems of the U.S. military. His ads also promised that caskets or other merchandise, such as urns, would be delivered within 24 hours.
But Stabile never had licensing agreements with the military, Pappert said. And once customer complaints started coming in, the American Legion, Fraternal Order of Police, Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Veterans all terminated their agreements with him.
In April, for example, the American Legion canceled its agreement to sell its members Celestial caskets with the Legion's emblem.
"The American Legion has been fully cooperating with the [attorney general], and will continue to support the efforts of his office to ensure the full restitution of funds to all individuals who have not been provided the product or services they purchased in good faith," the Indianapolis-based Legion said in a statement.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04234/365179.stm |
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