Where do you go after you Die? Family Sues for Answer

April 13th, 2016. By LucyC

What’s that expression—don’t shoot the messenger? What about exceptional circumstances? Ok—maybe hire a lawyer instead—but you know where we’re going with this. Just for a moment, imagine getting a phone call from a funeral home you have hired for transportation purposes only, that goes something like “So sorry, your mother’s remains were accidentally cremated, and actually, we can’t find them now.”

Yup. It really happened. A funeral home in Manhattan mistakenly cremated the remains of Consuelo Rivera, a New Jersey resident, and then lost the ashes, according to her family, who yes, filed a lawsuit. Surprised? But it gets worse—you must have known that it would.

The bungling is on par with a Marx Brothers’ film, but this script ain’t funny.

The short version, according to Michael Lamonsoff, the family’s lawyer, goes like this: Mrs. Rivera passed away on March 22 and her body was taken to Biondi Funeral Home in Nutley, NJ. In preparation for burial. So far so good. However, the two sons were not impressed with the service they were receiving and requested that their mother’s body (key point here) be taken to a funeral home in Brooklyn, the RG Ortiz Funeral Home, for preparation. A relatively straight forward request, one would think.

Not so much. The Rivera brothers hired another funeral service company (so we’re now at three), First Avenue Funeral Services of Manhattan, to transport their deceased mother from Biondi (the first funeral home) to RG Ortiz (the second funeral home).

Apparently, there was a delay in transportation—who knows what that means—and the third company—First Avenue—ended up keeping Mrs. Rivera. Still with me?

Then came the phone call, March 27, from a staff person at First Avenue, telling Mrs. Rivera’s relatives that they had accidentally cremated Mrs. Rivera. And, according to the lawsuit, her family was also told that First Avenue could not find the urn containing her ashes. Nice one boys.

Not sure how one would react to that news. But now the hunt was on.

Rivera’s sons, absolutely desperate to find their mother, began searching. However, when they thought they had found her at the Rosemont Crematorium in Elizabeth, NJ, the director of the crematorium, in fact, gave them an urn containing someone else. The wrong urn. OMG. How the heck are you going to know who’s in the urn? Not to be dark here but one set of ashes have to look pretty much like the next.

To continue, following that rather major set-back, the boys began the search anew. But the pattern of mistakes continued. Once again, the Rivera’s thought they had found their mother’s remains at First Manhattan (the third funeral home) but that information also proved incorrect.

According to their attorney, Lamonsoff, the sons were given the wrong urn. Again. Seriously. More than a week later, Rivera’s remains were still missing, the attorney told the New York Post recently.

“To date the remains of Consuelo Rivera continue to be missing and a heartbroken and bewildered family is unable to say their final goodbyes,” Lamonsoff said in a statement.

Rivera’s sons, Emilio and Juan Irizarry, who by this point must be quite traumatized by these events, are quite understandably suing all three funeral firms for damages, citing extreme negligence. I would think, however, that bungling on this level puts a whole new spin on “extreme negligence,” not to mention, “rest in peace.”
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This was posted on Wednesday, April 13th, 2016 at 11:56 am and is filed under Crazy Sh*t Lawyers See . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.