Photo courtesy of Black Enterprise
After they reportedly buried the wrong body, a family has filed a lawsuit against the Joseph A. Slinger-Hasgill Funeral Home located in Amityville, New York.
Sadie Williams’ 11 children filed the $88 million-dollar lawsuit against Slinger-Hagsgill on Thursday in the Queens New York State Supreme Court. The family said in the lawsuit, the funeral home caused them “severe mental, psychological, traumatic injuries” after mixing up their mother’s body with someone else’s.
According to NBC News, Williams’ children had already contacted Slinger-Hasgill to handle their mother’s funeral arrangements after her death on Aug. 17. The family wanted to uphold their Muslamic traditions by burying Williams within three days.
A day before Williams’ funeral, her daughter, Salimah Lee, arrived at the funeral home to view the body and informed the director Joseph Slinger that it was not her mother.
Slinger insisted it was, the lawsuit says.
According to the lawsuit, The children held the funeral service and burial on Aug. 20. Slinger, once again, reassured the children that it was the correct body being buried.
Instead, Williams’ body was left “abandoned” in the funeral home’s morgue, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also states that Slinger called the family a day after the burial and informed them about the mistake. The funeral director supposedly told the family the “incorrect body would be exhumed so Williams could be buried.”
On Sept. 8, the family held another funeral to bury Williams. The children and other out-of-state relatives had to travel back to New York to attend the funeral services.
The lawsuit said the funeral home coordinated another funeral and burial but “did not provide full funeral services for this second service.”
“This should not even have happened to her,” Lee told NBC New York.
The family lawyer, Phil Rizzuto, said the family alerted the funeral home of the mixup and disregarded their concerns.
“It is unconscionable how such egregious actions can take place,” family attorney Phil Rizzuto wrote in a
statement to NBC New York on Thursday. “The most disturbing thing about this case is that the family pointed out the error, and Mr. Slinger-Hasgill refused even to consider the possibility of making a mistake.”Lee’s brother was emotional as he talked about his family hiring the funeral home and trusted they would “do the right thing.”
“Even now, it’s like, every day I have that memory in my head seeing my mother still above the ground,” he said.