Entombment Lawsuit
The Anniston Star (AL)
MISHANDLING OF ENTOMBMENT PROVES COSTLY FOR GRAY BROWN
Date: November 8, 1997
Article written by: Jenny Cromie
A Calhoun County Jury returned a $2 million verdict akgain Gray Brown-Service Mortuary Friday in lawsuit charging the funeral home mishandled an Anniston woman’s entombment.
Jurors deliberated an hour and a half before returning the verdict, which Circuit Judge Malcolm Street said is one of the largest he’s seen in his 22 years on the bench. The trial, which began Monday in Street’s courtroom, stemmed from a 1996 lawsuit filed by Fred Patrick Lloyd, Jr. the husband of the late Lillian Faye Lloyd.
Mrs. Lloyd died in 1991 and was entombed in Forestlawn Mausoleum operated by Gray Brown-Service, court documents show. Sometime later, Mrs. Lloyd’s casket began to leak, and area residents who visited the mausoleum complained of the odor.
In June 1993, employees of Gray Brown-Service opened Mrs. Lloyd’s casket with a hacksaw and crowbar and poured a drying agent over her body, according to the lawsuit. Because of the damage to the $3,000 copper casket, mortuary employees where unable to properly reseal the casket, the lawsuit said.
Two months later, after another complaint about the odor, mortuary employees went back to the mausoleum at night, removed Mrs. Lloyd’s body from the casket, put it in a body bag, poured on more drying agent, and placed the body in another casket, court documents show. They buried the original casket.
The funeral home employees had failed to get proper permits required to reopen a coffin, according to testimony.
Mrs. Lloyd’s family said they did not learn what happened until a year later.
During closing arguments Friday, Anniston attorney Arthur Fite, who was representing Gray Brown-Service, told jurors that funeral home employees realized their error.
“Gray Brown made a very simple mistake,” he said.
Fite told jurors that the funeral home employees did not want to cause the family further upset and had to take care of what they considered an emergency situation.
Birmingham attorneys Keith “Kit” Belt and Hen Hooks, representing the Lloyds, asked jurors to consider returning a verdict with $1.5 million in damages for the mental anguish the incident caused the family.
Belt urged jurors to send a strong message to those in the funeral industry by returning a verdict in their favor.
“Emergency is not a legal defense in this case,” Hooks said of Gray Brown’s rationale for reopening Mrs. Lloyd’s casket.
