The cemetery grounds were poorly maintained, and you fell at your loved one’s graveside. The funeral home negligently handled your family member’s remains. These businesses serving grieving families must still maintain safe premises and perform services with reasonable care.
Premises Liability at Cemeteries
Cemeteries are commercial properties that invite visitors. Operators owe visitors duties to maintain safe premises.
The duty includes maintaining grounds in reasonably safe condition, addressing hazards including uneven terrain, sunken graves, and damaged headstones, ensuring adequate lighting in areas open after dark, maintaining pathways and roadways throughout the cemetery, and keeping buildings and structures safe.
Cemetery terrain presents inherent challenges. Uneven ground, weather effects, and the nature of burial operations create conditions requiring ongoing maintenance.
Common Cemetery Hazards
Cemeteries present specific hazard patterns.
Ground settling over graves creates depressions and uneven surfaces. Regular maintenance should identify and address settling before dangerous conditions develop.
Headstones and monuments can become unstable, damaged, or fall. Inspection should identify problems. Fallen stones create trip hazards and can strike visitors.
Tree hazards including dead branches, root damage to pathways, and fallen limbs require regular arboricultural attention.
Pathway conditions including broken pavement, gravel displacement, and drainage problems affect walking safety.
Open graves and excavations during preparation for services create fall hazards requiring barriers, warnings, and supervision.
Negligent Handling of Remains
Funeral homes and cemeteries can be liable for negligent treatment of human remains.
Georgia law recognizes claims for negligent infliction of emotional distress when funeral homes and cemeteries mishandle remains. The relationship between bereaved families and those handling their loved ones’ bodies creates duties beyond ordinary business transactions.
Actionable mishandling may include burial in wrong graves, mixing or switching remains, embalming errors causing visible damage, cremation errors including mixing remains or incomplete cremation, dropping or damaging caskets, storage failures allowing decomposition, and failure to properly prepare remains for viewing.
These claims primarily seek emotional distress damages. The injury isn’t physical harm to claimants but the severe emotional impact of mistreatment of loved ones’ remains.
Emotional Distress Standards
Georgia requires physical injury or impact for most negligent infliction of emotional distress claims. However, special relationship exceptions exist.
The relationship between bereaved families and those handling remains is sufficiently special that emotional distress claims may proceed without physical impact.
The distress must be severe and the defendant’s conduct must go beyond mere negligence in some circumstances. Gross negligence, recklessness, or particularly outrageous conduct strengthens claims.
Witnessing the mistreatment may strengthen claims compared to learning about it later.
Contract and Service Issues
Funeral and cemetery services involve contracts that may affect claims.
Service agreements specify what services will be provided and at what cost. Breach of contract claims may supplement tort claims.
Pre-need contracts purchased in advance create obligations that may be breached years later when services are actually rendered.
Package deals and service combinations may create confusion about what was promised and what was delivered.
Regulatory Framework
Georgia regulates funeral homes and cemeteries through various statutes and the Georgia Secretary of State.
Licensing requirements apply to funeral homes, funeral directors, and embalmers. Operating without proper licensing or with license violations may constitute negligence per se.
Rules govern handling, storage, transportation, and preparation of remains. Regulatory violations support negligence claims.
Cemetery regulations address maintenance, record-keeping, and perpetual care funds. Failures in these areas may support claims.
Damage Considerations
Cemetery and funeral home claims involve particular damage elements.
Emotional distress damages compensate for grief amplified by negligent handling. Expert testimony about psychological impact may be necessary.
Costs of remediation when services must be redone, remains relocated, or additional services performed are compensable.
Loss of final opportunity for proper goodbye when remains are mishandled before viewing affects families significantly.
Punitive damages may be available for particularly egregious conduct demonstrating reckless disregard for family interests.
Practical Considerations
These claims involve sensitive subjects and unique dynamics.
Families in acute grief may not immediately recognize negligence or think about legal claims.
Emotional difficulty in pursuing claims against those handling loved ones’ remains may delay action.
Evidence preservation requires prompt attention. Conditions change. Records may be lost or altered.
Statute of limitations runs from when mishandling is discovered in some circumstances, providing some protection for delayed discovery.
Cemetery and funeral home claims address both premises safety and proper handling of remains. This article provides general information about these claims in Georgia. For specific guidance, consult with a Georgia personal injury attorney.