Lawsuit: Batesville's pricey caskets aren't leak-proof - as promised - Orlando Sentinel

Lawsuit: Batesville's pricey caskets aren't leak-proof - as promised - Orlando Sentinel

August 11, 2009|By Amy L. Edwards, Sentinel Staff Writer
How do you know if your loved one's remains are really being protected 6 feet under? That's at the crux of a class-action lawsuit recently filed in Orlando.

For his beloved Aunt Shirley, Robert Haught invested in a pricey casket -- one that was "significantly" more expensive than a lesser model -- touted as being completely resistant to outside elements, including water.

There's just one problem with the Batesville Casket Co.'s claims: They're untrue and unverifiable, according to the suit.

The claim against Batesville, the nation's largest casket manufacturer, says the company preyed on vulnerable people wanting to preserve their loved one's dignity.


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It focuses on "gasketed" caskets, which the company warranted as leak-proof.

Because of the unique protection, prices for the caskets were "significantly higher" than those of other metal caskets, the lawsuit said.

Haught, of Orange County, and the other class members had no way of knowing Batesville's claims were "false, fraudulent and unsubstantiated."

Haught declined to comment on the suit. A Batesville official did not return calls.

In 2002, Batesville paid a group of California consumers who sued because the caskets didn't resist the entrance of water, air or other elements, as warranted, the Florida suit said.

In September of that year, the suit said, Batesville removed the claim from its warranty.

But that was too late for Haught, who bought his aunt's casket from Collison Carey Hand Funeral Home in September 2001.

Batesville knew "its fraudulent marketing scheme could not and would not be detected because Plaintiff and Class Members could not ascertain on their own that the Gasketed Caskets provided no better protection for the deceased than the less expensive non-gasketed casket," the suit said.

Had Haught and the other litigants known there was no difference between the caskets other than the price, they wouldn't have paid more.

The legal filing also claims Batesville marketed and sold gasketed caskets in violation of a Federal Trade Commission cease and desist order.

The suit, filed by an attorney with the Lovelace Law Firm in Miramar Beach, designates class members as anyone who bought gasketed caskets manufactured by Batesville from a licensed funeral home in Florida from January 1989 through August 2002. The proposed class consists of thousands of people.