[deadeyedawg]

It really wasn't the money," Sweeney said.

Then why sue? They got the funeral for free.

[Jaded]

It was a closed casket from the beginning?

[Corin Stormhands]

"It's not being buried with dignity. It took away the whole mood. I don't remember anything about the burial service other than staring at the ground," Sweeney said.

When my Dad died, I'm not sure we were worried about the "mood." And I don't remember anything about the burial service other than staring at the ground.

The funeral home took care of it as best they could.

This isn't about dignity. It's about cash.

[Zeppelin]

I felt for the family, until I got to the part where they tried to sue the funeral home. That's ridiculous. "It wasnt about the money." So why not accept the free funeral and the $3000 compensation? We want $250,000 each!

As traumatic as the experience was, sh*t happens. No amount of money is going to wipe away the fact that it happened. But maybe that new luxury car or lakehouse will, eh?

[socal_parrot]

"I heard my older sister scream like somebody had run a knife into her."

Disturbing he knows what that sounds like.

[Dallas59]

Bury me in pine box. No lace, no silk no nothing.

[RGSpincich]

Aurora Casket Co. of Aurora, Ind., which supplied the casket to the Taylor Raymond Spear Funeral Home, replaced the damaged one with a more expensive model. And Spear's funeral home did not charge the family for any of the $6,500 funeral.

They've done enough. This family needs to get a life. Pun intended.

[HEY4QDEMS]

Aurora Casket Co. of Aurora, Ind., which supplied the casket to the Taylor Raymond Spear Funeral Home, replaced the damaged one with a more expensive model. And Spear's funeral home did not charge the family for any of the $6,500 funeral.

This is a plain and simple negligence case, nothing more. Replacing the defective casket is really all that was required, having the funeral fees waived is over and above in terms of compensation IMO.

Back in my construction days our crew installed kitchen cabinets. The homeowner came home and informed us that the cabinets were the wrong color. We ordered new ones and replaced the ones we had already installed. When the job was done she refused to pay because the innitial shock of seeing the wrong cabinets caused her so much distress that she believed we should be thankful that she wasn't sueing us. We sued her, won triple damages for breach of contract and then settled for the original contract amount.

These people are nothing but scum and they're everywhere.

[Fido969]

I then asked a wonderful bunch of pallbearers to help me. I held the top shell of the casket as they brought the bottom up, and we took it back, almost completely back into the funeral coach."

Slick!

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

I'm sure this guy's father didn't feel a thing...

[reagan_fanatic]

The casket companies offered the family members a settlement of $3,000 each, Sweeney said. They rejected that offer and proposed instead $250,000 for each sibling, for a total of $1 million

This is pathetic. I buried my Dad two years ago, and I can see how traumatic such a thing could be, HOWEVER, I think the funeral home and the casket mfr. offered a reasonable settlement. This is just pure, naked greed on the part of the family, and does a disservice to the memory of their Father.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

This is silly. It's not worth any money and some of the family and friends are probably telling jokes about it.

[WKB]

I guess the old man was just dying to get outta that box.

[Yankereb]

Sure it's about the money.
When my father in law died the funeral home messed up. He was buried in a town 60 miles from where he lived and died in a family plot. When we got to the site of the burial, there was no canaopy, no chairs, and no sign of any preparation for a burial except a hole in the ground. The herse was there with the driver. The mourners were there, but nothing else. I have never seen my husband so angry. He approached the funeral director who also was the herse diver who at this point had a look of sheer terror on his face. He immediately started apologizing to my husband. Some one at the funeral home had not done their job and called a local funeral home to provide all of the equipment needed for the burial.
So being farm folk, and in true Texan Plains fashion, we improvised. We got tow ropes out of the cars, put blankets and tarps over the dirt mound, his grandsons carried him to his final resting place. We had our services, and we lowered him into the ground. He would have loved it. He didn't take much stock in funerals rituals anyway.
I think the funeral home took $300 off the bill because we hadn't had to rent the burial equipment. 5 years later we buried my mother in law, and my Mom through the same funeral home. We didn't even think of suing.
After all, things happen, and that's life. No one was injured or permanently scared. In a way, it was a healing experience. We put him to rest ourselves like our ancestors did in the frontier days. He was surrounded by family until the very end.

[rabidralph]

what I'm trying to get across to people is that things like this can happen, but don't look forward to it coming out in your favor.

Hmmmm. "Favor" must be a codeword for big-money payout.

[rabidralph]

"It's just been eating me alive, how something like this could happen, [and the best way for me to profit from it]"

[Responsibility1st]

Pure speculation but....

You just don't go burying a 400 pounder in a $900 casket.

OK, that was mean. I'm sorry.

This reminds me of when my wife in I were at a funeral home when my father in law died and the director was pointing out caskets for us.

"This one", he said "comes with a lifetime guarantee!"

I couldn't help but laugh. "WHOSE lifetime?" I wanted to know. The director really didn't like me making fun of his "lifetime guaranteed" caskets, but now after reading this story, I will want a guarantee next time.

Guranteed to get them from the hearse to the grave without losing it's cargo!!!

Weired, weired story.

[HairOfTheDog]

"It's bad enough to have something like that happen, but it's even worse the way the law reads. Since we didn't receive any type of personal injury, we weren't really affected to the point they felt we needed any type of settlement," he said.

It's a bad thing to happen, and even more horrible to think having bad things happen to you makes you entitled to be enriched by it.

I absolutely would have rejected this suit, and think this family should be ashamed of themselves.

Tort law exists to fix monetary loss that is the fault of someone else. I would propose that "pain and suffering" and "emotional duress" and similar emotional damages be eliminated from the law as a cause of action. They are the leading cause of tort abuse in my opinion.

[derllak]

If this happened to me, I would hope everyone would just double over with laughter! It would be wonderful if I could put one last smile on everyone's face before they put me six feet under!