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Daughters seek to exhume their mother as they sue funeral home
YOUNGSTOWN
Two daughters of a woman who died more than four years ago seek a court order to exhume their mother’s body for expert examination in support of their lawsuit against the local funeral home that handled her arrangements.
Mary Jane Patton of New Castle, Pa., estate administrator, and Lilly May Curtis of Greenville, Pa., are asking the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to order the disinterment of Rose White, a Youngstown resident who died at age 93 on July 24, 2008, and was buried three days later in Lake Park Cemetery in Boardman.
They are seeking the exhumation order in support of a lawsuit the family filed in 2011 against the Shriver-Allison-Courtley-Weller-King Funeral Home of Youngstown; Funeral Home Services Corp. of Boardman, which transports bodies; and Bryan M. Lozano of Boardman, an FHS employee.
In affidavits, family members said they saw stitching of the deceased’s eyes and mouth, which they said breached their contract with the funeral home. “Horrifying the family was visible stitching to the eyes and mouth with dark thread,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also contains numerous complaints about alleged rudeness and undignified behavior by those handling the arrangements.
The funeral home sought unsuccessfully to dismiss the suit on the basis that it is untimely and does not contain any claim for which relief can be granted by the court.
Magistrate Dennis J. Sarisky said he will schedule a hearing to determine if he or the county probate court has jurisdiction over the exhumation matter, and, if he finds that he has jurisdiction, he will then conduct a hearing on the merits of the exhumation request before deciding whether to order the disinterment.
In their exhumation request, the daughters say they want their expert witness, who is a licensed embalmer, to evaluate the position of the body and the stitching of the deceased’s eyes and mouth, and to render an opinion as to the “handling and/or abuse of a corpse” and as to “wounds to the body after death.”
They say they also want their expert to render an opinion as to whether the handling of the deceased met professional embalming standards.
In their request, the daughters said a defense expert also would be given a chance to examine the body before it is reinterred.
A third daughter, Betty June Fischer of Greenville, Pa., has not consented to the disinterment, the request said.
Kurt R. Weitendorf of Akron, the funeral home’s lawyer, said he will not oppose the exhumation request.
“We feel sorry for the death and sorry they feel something went wrong, but there was nothing improper done by Shriver Allison” or FHS, Weitendorf said Monday.
“It’s certainly possible that the body would be in good enough condition” after four years underground in a coffin and vault to evaluate the embalming and other arrangements, said Dr. Joseph Ohr, forensic pathologist and deputy county coroner.
The body would “not necessarily” be badly decomposed, and its condition would depend on many factors, including the condition of the body at death, the quality of the embalming, the condition of the coffin and vault, and the wetness or dryness of the burial ground. Wet ground could accelerate decomposition, he said.
Dr. Ohr said he has been able to rule on the cause and manner of death in autopsies after a body has been exhumed after four or more years in the ground, but, he said his evaluations did not concern embalming.
The written exhumation request quotes Lozano, who transported White’s body, but is not a licensed funeral director or embalmer, saying he prefers that the deceased’s eyes be closed.
“It creeps me out,” Lozano said in a deposition in the case. “The eyes bother me, and so, I like to close the eyes. ... If they’re left open, they could stay that way,” Lozano said.
However, he said he couldn’t remember whether White’s eyes were open or closed.
The funeral home said Richard B. Schmader embalmed White’s body, but, in a deposition, Schmader said he didn’t recall doing so, and that, if her eyes were stitched shut, he would conclude that he did not embalm her.
A lawsuit mediation session is set for 10:30 a.m. Jan. 10 with Richard B. Blair, common pleas court mediator.
If that fails to produce a settlement, another pretrial hearing is set for 10 a.m. Feb. 13 before Magistrate Sarisky; and the jury trial is scheduled to begin May 7 before Judge Maureen A. Sweeney.