Funeral home sued over man’s mistaken burial
A San Antonio family has sued a funeral home, claiming the facility failed to pick up their father’s body from a hospital for cremation, so it was deemed abandoned and Bexar County buried him in a pauper’s grave.
The plaintiffs are daughters of Arthur Martinez, who was 83 when he died on June 28 from complications of COVID-19 at Northeast Baptist Hospital.
“We are grief stricken about the events surrounding our father’s cremation, and how the arrangements we made were not honored,” the family said in a statement released by their attorney, Jason Hoelscher. “We desperately seek to fulfill his wishes regarding his remains, and we are hopeful this litigation can prevent others from experiencing our pain and loss.”
The daughters, Veronica Martinez, Maria Martinez, Victoria Gonzales and Judy Esparza, purchased cremation and funeral services on July 6 from the defendants, Heart of Texas Cremations San Antonio, Affordable Funerals and Javier R. Reyes, according to the lawsuit, filed Feb. 23 in the 224th Civil District Court.
But the funeral home “intentionally, recklessly and/or negligently failed to comply with its contractual obligation and promise to secure and maintain care, custody and control of the remains of Arthur Martinez at all times,” the lawsuit states.
The plaintiffs also accuse Reyes, who was “acting as agent and on behalf of the remaining defendants” when he told family members that their father’s body had been secured from the hospital, that his account at the funeral home was “paid in full, and that the cremation of Arthur Martinez would soon follow,” the lawsuit states.
But that did not happen, according to the lawsuit, which
seeks a jury trial and monetary damages of more than $1 million.
“Defendants never picked up the Decedent, and his body was ultimately declared as a case of family abandonment by Bexar County, and Arthur Martinez was buried by the county,” the lawsuit states.
The burial “was expressly contrary to the wishes of the Plaintiffs, who had contracted with Defendants for cremation services for their father,” it states.
Hoelscher said the family still doesn’t know where the body is.
“We are trying to confirm location so we can secure the remains,” he said in an email.
The county maintains records for pauper burials, which are done for families who cannot afford funeral services, or for deceased persons whose identities are not known, said David Marquez, the Bexar County economic and community development director.
“We have records,” he said. “We know who they are and where they have been buried.”
A person who answered the telephone at Heart of Texas Cremations took a detailed message seeking comment on the lawsuit, but the call was not returned.