Jury Declines Awarding Damages In Civil Trial of Misplaced Burial

SAN DIEGO, CA — A San Diego jury declined to award damages for emotional distress this week to a local family who sued a Mountain View mortuary after it was discovered their father had been buried in the wrong grave 22 years earlier.

The family of Sidney Cooper Sr., affectionately known as the "Mayor of Imperial Avenue," sued the company that previously operated the Greenwood Memorial Park and Mortuary for the mistaken burial, which occurred following Cooper's death in 2001.

Cooper's family said that after Cooper's wife, Thelma Cooper, died in March of last year, it was discovered that Cooper's body and casket was never buried in the plot the couple purchased in 1992.

Sidney Cooper's casket was recovered about three months later in another location within the same cemetery. By that time, the family had already been forced to bury Thelma Cooper alone against her wishes, their attorney Eric Dubin told a San Diego jury.

Toby Magarian, an attorney for SCI California Funeral Services, which previously owned the Greenwood Memorial Park and Mortuary, said the family service counselor who helped the family with Sidney Cooper's funeral arrangements marked the wrong spot for his grave on a form, which led to Cooper's burial about one row over from the intended spot.

Magarian said that by the time the mistake was discovered, Greenwood had been sold to another company and Sidney Cooper had been deceased for 22 years.

While Dubin said it took three months to locate Cooper's remains, Magarian said Greenwood's new owners found the form bearing the incorrect location for Cooper's grave and quickly informed the Cooper family where his true burial location was. However, Magarian alleged the new cemetery owners provided the family with conflicting information about the location of the grave and took too long to fix the issue, leading to much of the emotional distress claimed by the family.

Though jurors declined to award damages, they did rule that SCI was negligent for the misplaced burial.

Outside of the jury trial, the Cooper family reached a settlement with NorthStar Memorial Group, which purchased Greenwood and owned the mortuary when it was discovered Cooper had been buried in the incorrect location. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

— City News Service