Status granted in Galilee complaint
Court upholds ruling against funeral homes
Families of loved ones buried at troubled Galilee Memorial Gardens have enough common ground to grant class-action status to their complaint against 35 funeral homes, the state Court of Appeals said in a ruling filed this week.
The action upheld a local Chancery Court decision that funeral homes were responsible for assuring proper disposal of a relative’s remains as part of their contract with the family members, including burial, the appeals court said.
“This is an important ruling that means that all of the families impacted by this tragedy can stand together in seeking justice,” said Kathryn Barnett of Morgan and Morgan, who along with Howard Manis of The Cochran
Firm, is representing families in the action.
The appeals court decision upholds a previous ruling by Shelby County Chancellor Jim Kyle.
The cemetery on Ellis Road in Bartlett has faced scrutiny for questionable practices and eventually was closed by court order in January 2014. Owner Jemar Lambert faced criminal charges for improper handling of bodies and encroaching on adjacent property — owned by a trust; not the cemetery — for burials. Witnesses said they saw Galilee employees put multiple bodies in the same grave and even crush caskets to create more space for several burials in the same spot. Cemetery records were in such disarray, officials could not determine where bodies were buried.
The actions sent the case down separate criminal and civil paths. Lambert eventually received a 10year suspended sentence and 10 years probation after entering an Alford Plea in March 2015.
That left civil cases and the pursuit of class-action status against Galilee and funeral homes involved with burials at Galilee.
Meanwhile, the cemetery remains closed and officials acknowledge they will never know which bodies are buried in what graves.
“It is undisputed,” the appeals court stated, “that there are at least 1,288 deceased individuals in the purported class, some of whom are part of the lawsuit and some of whom are not.”
The families affected are pursuing action against the funeral homes, saying their contract with the businesses included proper handling of the bodies, and contending the funeral homes did not uphold that part of the agreement by delivering the remains to Galilee, which did not have a license from the state to operate between 2011 and 2014.
The appeals court said whether the agreement with the funeral homes was written, verbal or informal, “the respective (families) came away from the meeting with the respective defendant funeral homes with the understanding that there would be proper disposition of the decedent’s remains.”