NJ Woman Buried In Another's Clothes At Wrong Cemetery In Funeral Home Error, Family Says

LAKEWOOD, NJ — The family of a Lakewood woman is suing the funeral home that handled her remains after her body was buried in the wrong cemetery wearing another woman's clothes.

Robin Kay Lord filed the lawsuit on behalf of her father, Leroy Kay, against Bloomfield-Cooper Jewish Chapels of Manalapan, saying the funeral home mixed up the body of Janet Kay and another woman after Janet's death on Oct. 3, 2020.

An employee at Bloomfield-Cooper directed inquiries to the company's media response line, and a message left Thursday with an employee there was not answered.

Janet Kay died at age 82, in her sleep at her Lakewood home, and Leroy Kay hired Bloomfield-Cooper to handle her burial, according to the lawsuit filed in Superior Court in Monmouth County. She was to be buried at Mount Sinai Mausoleum in Marlboro. The funeral home charges for preparing and handling the burial were more than $13,000, not including the charges for opening and closing the grave, the suit said.

When family and friends arrived on Oct. 6 for Janet's burial, they were shown the body of another woman who was dressed in Janet's clothing and wearing her jewelry, causing some to scream and one woman to nearly faint, the lawsuit said. It seeks damages for infliction of emotional distress, breach of contract and consumer fraud.

The lawsuit says that when Janet Kay died, the family provided employees of the funeral home specific clothing and jewelry that Janet had requested for her burial. As they did so, the family members told the employees that their biggest fear was she would be presented in another woman's clothing, according to the lawsuit.

"The importance of the request of the decedent to be buried in that clothing and with that jewelry was made abundantly clear to Bloomfield-Cooper," the lawsuit says.

On Oct. 4, 2020, Janet Kay's body was taken to a northern New Jersey cemetery and buried, wearing another woman's clothing, jewelry and wedding ring, "next to a deceased man she does not know and on a Jewish holy day," the suit said.

Her family did not find out until two days later when they arrived at Mount Sinai Cemetery for Janet's funeral and realized from an employee's questions, "after a prolonged delay" in the funeral service, that the funeral home had lost Janet Kay's remains, the lawsuit said.

The employee then "Facetimed family members next to Leroy and showed them a woman who was not Janet Kay," who was dressed in Janet Kay’s clothing and wearing her jewelry, the suit said.

Leroy Kay refused to look "as he was terrified of what he would see," but the unidentified woman's body was shown in front of at least 60 people, some of whom screamed. One woman in her 90s nearly fainted, the suit said.

The funeral service was held without Janet Kay's body.

"Janet Kay’s final corporal moments in the eyes of the Jewish faith were not presented to her full family and friends. Janet Kay was not buried with respect and dignity," the lawsuit said.

The funeral home then tracked down her body and found she had been buried in a North Jersey cemetery, which was not identified in the lawsuit. But to retrieve her body, exhumation papers had to be signed and approved by the cemetery where Janet Kay was incorrectly buried. While the family was gathered for the evening celebration meal on Oct. 6, 2020, after Janet's service, a funeral home employee interrupted to have Leroy Kay sign the exhumation papers, the suit said.

Janet Kay's body was exhumed on Oct. 7, and on Oct. 8, 2020, Robin Kay Lord went to the funeral home "to personally confirm Janet Kay’s body," the lawsuit said. Her mother's body had started to decompose, which meant it was not possible to have a service presenting her to friends and family "as she would have been if she was properly taken care of," the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit says Bloomfield-Cooper says Janet Kay's body was "improperly tagged during the Tahara washing ritual," which is part of the Jewish tradition for burials.

Janet Kay was finally buried at Mount Sinai on Oct. 8, 2020, with just immediate family present, the lawsuit says.