TortsProf Blog: Wrong Casket? Dig Up Your Ancestor and Sue

(If you are going to pay extra for something and that something is not given to you, then you should sue. Companies should not try to get away with something just because there is a good chance that they can and will.)

originally posted:
May 30, 2007
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/tortsprof/2007/05/wrong_casket_di.html
Wrong Casket? Dig Up Your Ancestor and Sue

That's the approach in Arkansas, anyway:
When [Clarence Budy] Simons died in July 2002, the Simons family shelled out $1,745 for an Addison 20 gauge casket that was supposed to be leak-proof for 75 years.
But in 2005, Simons' family learned that some "leak-proof" caskets made by Batesville Casket weren't so watertight, according to the family's lawsuit filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court by their attorney, Charles Phillip Boyd Jr. of Little Rock.
In May 2005, the family exhumed Simons to see if the casket had leaked.
Sure enough, the family said, the casket had leaked and didn't preserve Simons.
Why, yes, they have sued:
The family also learned the casket Simons was in was of "significantly less quality" and cheaper than the one they ordered.
The family said the situation has caused severe emotional distress and has listed several counts on which they are seeking damages, including breach of contract.
Query: Does voluntarily witnessing the exhumation of your father/spouse/family member fit in the category of consent and/or assumption of risk?
(h/t LCC)
--BC
May 30, 2007 in Goofy Cases | Permalink

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