Mortuary Buries Woman on Wrong Day at Wrong Cemetery

The family of an 89-year-old woman who was interred in the wrong resting place sued an East Los Angeles funeral home today.

The relatives of Maria Mercedes Solorio filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against Funeraria Latino Americana, alleging negligence and breach of a funeral services contract.

The plaintiffs, who are seeking unspecified damages, include her husband, Jose Manuel Barajas, as well as her sons, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

The funeral home previously issued a statement acknowledging a mix-up had occurred.

“The funeral home is very sorry for this honest mistake,” the statement read. “Within two hours of the discovery of the mistake, both families were advised of what occurred in person at their homes through a personal visit by two of the managers of the funeral home. All necessary steps have been undertaken to immediately rectify this situation.”

Solorio died May 31. On June 18, the family received a call from the funeral home saying Solorio’s viewing scheduled for the following day would not go forward because Solorio had already been buried following another family’s funeral service, the suit states.

The funeral home representatives told the family Solorio was buried a few days before they learned that the bodies were switched, but the plaintiffs later learned Solorio was interred under the wrong name and by another family on June 5 at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills, the lawsuit states.

“Plaintiffs were understandably devastated, grief-stricken and angry with the realization that their family grandmother had been buried under the wrong name by the wrong family,” the suit says.

The family members cannot recover the woman’s body without a court order, according to the lawsuit.

“These series of events have caused and continued to cause plaintiffs to suffer extreme and outrageous emotional harm,” according to the lawsuit.

A funeral Mass and burial were to take place a day after the viewing, the lawsuit states.

“They had sent out fliers, bought flowers, hired a caterer, organized a Catholic funeral and arranged for Maria’s priest to officiate the services,” according to the lawsuit. “After a month of mourning, the family wanted to come together and remember their fondest memories with Maria. This weekend of services was expected to bring the family closure and allow them to remember Maria’s life rather than her death.”

City News Service

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