Draper Mortuary Named By Lawyer in Brain Mishandling Suit Following Utah Auto Accident

Albuquerque, New Mexico personal injury lawyer Richard Valle has named a New Mexico and Draper, Utah funeral home as defendants after a particularly distressing find by a car accident victim’s family. According to ABC News, the named mortuaries, including the one in Draper, Utah, mishandled the remains of a woman who was killed in a serious September 28, 2009 Utah car accident. According to reports, the body was prepared by Serenicare Funeral Home of Draper, Utah and shipped to New Mexico for the funeral. Accompanying the body, was a bag containing the poor woman’s brain, which had apparently been severely damaged. The bag had been placed in a relative’s truck overnight and the next morning, family members noticed a foul smell coming from it. When the bag was opened, they discovered the brain. The brain has since been buried with the deceased woman.

These types of suits are called mishandling of corpse cases. The legal claim is that of negligence: negligent infliction of emotional distress, or NIED or short, and abuse or mishandling of a corpse. The theory is that there understandably will be severe emotional distress when a family member comes upon the brain placed in a bag and that the funeral homes should have taken measures to protect the family from this sight. In this case, the plaintiffs also allege breach of contract. Interestingly, none of the named defendants in this case are willing to accept responsibility and both are apparently blaming the other. It would seem that both would be interested in putting this matter to bed so as to avoid the untoward publicity that would naturally go along with a claim like this.
