It’s a grave plot! Diggers try to cram coffin into hole too small

Workers at a Brooklyn cemetery turned a sad and solemn day into a living nightmare when they tried to jam a woman’s casket into a plot that was too small – and her family watched in horror when the coffin swung open, a new lawsuit claims.

The disturbing scene unfolded in front of the woman’s sobbing family as cemetery laborers tried in vain to force the coffin of Claribel Oppenheimer, 79, into a plot at Evergreens Cemetery on June 24, according to the suit filed Friday in Bronx Supreme Court.

“The sound of scraping filled the air. After what felt like an eternity, the coffin got stuck,” reads the suit. “Defendant’s workers then pulled the coffin from all sides, causing sounds of scratching and scraping.”

One worker tried repeatedly to shove the coffin with his bare hands to no avail, according to the suit.

Laborers removed flowers from the casket as stunned mourners looked on.

The workers tugged, pulled and the casket allegedly swung open — revealing that Oppenheimer’s hands, which had been crossed, shifted during the chaos, the suit states.

Oppenheimer’s son, Jose Semidey, said he asked the workers to give up.

A pastor asked them to get tools to expand the grave, the suit says.

The workers then removed the coffin and laid it in the grass, where it sat for about an hour, according to the lawsuit. The pastor asked them to move it into the hearse due to hot weather.

To add insult to injury, the mourning family says workers yelled at them to get out of the way of a backhoe, the suit says.

Family members demanded that Oppenheimer receive a new casket, as the coffin had been damaged during the ordeal, the suit says. Three hours passed as her body was taken back to a funeral home and placed in a new coffin.

The suit was filed by Oppenheimer’s children, Semidey and Awilda Rivera.

“It is inexcusable for a cemetery not to dig a grave large enough to fit the casket,” said Eric Rothstein, an attorney representing family members. “Having to watch the casket manhandled, damaged, opened, and then placed on the grass as a backhoe is brought in to lengthen the grave while the casket is being replaced is unimaginable and something no family should ever have to endure.”

Evergreens Cemetery did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kin watched in anguish and horror as workers at Evergreens Cemetery in Brooklyn tried to force a coffin containing the family’s beloved relative Claribel Oppenheimer into a plot that was too small. Her children are suing the cemetery.