Funeral Home Put Wrong Body In Casket, Family Says In $50M Suit

RIDGEFIELD, NJ — A family has filed a $50 million lawsuit against a Ridgefield funeral home, alleging it put the wrong body into the casket during a burial service intended for their mother, and failed to inform the family until after the corpse was lowered into the grave.

Kyung Ja Kim died on Nov. 10, 2021 in her Englewood Cliffs home. Following her death, her family, including daughter Kummi Kim, signed a contract with Blackley Central Funeral Home in Ridgefield to handle burial arrangements.

But on Nov. 13, 2021, the day of the funeral, Kim's daughter discovered the body of another woman, dressed and adorned as her mother, had been transported by hearse and lowered into her mother's burial plot in New York, the lawsuit said.

In the lawsuit, Kummi Kim said that she first saw her mother's body at the funeral service, which was held the morning of Nov. 13 at a church in Leonia.

She said she thought her mother's different appearance was attributable to the embalmer's postmortem use of makeup, or filler such as Botox, and then made that comment to funeral home director Haemin Gina Chong, who, the lawsuit said, nodded her head, even though "she knew no filler had been applied."

Kummi Kim learned the mistake happened later that day, after Chong showed her a text, asking her to identify if an image of the body still at the funeral home was her mother's, the lawsuit alleges.

Indeed, it was. Chong then, "to the surprise of all," told the cemetery workers to lift the casket back out to be taken back to the funeral home, the lawsuit said.

Now, several months later, Kummi Kim, along with her two siblings and husband, are asking for $50 million in damages for loss of right to interment, negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress, battery and breach of contract, according to the lawsuit.

Blackley Funeral Home did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Chong, the lawsuit added, called Kummi Kim on the way to the graveside service and told her that if she was not sure the body was her mother's, then they "should turn all the cars around." However, Chong did not otherwise convey "any indication or suspicion" that the body was not that of their mother, the lawsuit continued.

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs "suffered great shock and psychological distress" upon learning that they had held services for a stranger whose body was placed in their loved one's coffin in error.

"To add shock and disgust over the mishandling," the lawsuit said, Kyung Ja Kim's dentures were placed under a pillow under the head of the other woman.

Following the revelation, Chong offered to refund funeral home fees totaling $9,000 and arranged for a makeshift funeral with Kyung Ja Kim's actual body on Nov. 14 at the Ridgefield funeral home, and the body was then taken to the New York cemetery for burial.

A service at the Leonia church could not be held because of the Mass schedule. Additionally, a number of out-of-town guests and family members, including three of Kyung Ja Kim's granddaughters, were unable to attend the second service.

The lawsuit contends the funeral home "grossly negligently and recklessly failed to assure appropriate identification of the body to enable her presentment," and violated the family's right to the "solace of the final leave-taking," thus inflicting severe emotional distress upon them.

The funeral home's conduct, the lawsuit added, was "outrageous in character, extreme in degree, atrocious, utterly intolerable and goes beyond all possible bounds of decency," and that trauma caused limits the plaintiffs' ability to "feel joy in the memory" of their mother.