Service Corporation International - Controversies - Massachusetts

Massachusetts

In 2010, the SCI-owned Stanetsky Chapel, a Jewish funeral home in Brookline, MA, was charged by the State Board of Registration with serious violations of state law and regulations in connection with an incident where a woman was buried in the wrong grave, then disinterred without a legal permit being obtained and reburied in the correct grave with the woman's family not being notified of the mistake and the corrective procedure. As a result, in December 2011, the State Board announced a Consent Agreement and levied the biggest fine in its history, $18,000, against Stanetsky and SCI, and suspended the license of the Stanetsky general manager for a year. Other staff members involved in the incident were subject to punitive actions ranging from additional professional training to license revocation. The incident received widespread local media coverage. The Board's action was also published on the Board's website.

Several years prior, the Boston Globe reported J.S. Waterman's & Sons, also owned by SCI, was found by the Board to have accidentally cremated the body of a stillborn infant. The infant's body was apparently placed on a gurney that held an adult woman's body that was scheduled for cremation. As a result of a civil suit brought by the infant's family, Waterman's was ordered to pay pay the parents $325,000, with a pending legal claim that the mortuary violated the state's consumer protection law that could triple the damages, the Boston Globe reported. The family's lawyer, Gordon T. Walker, said SCI could be hit with additional costs, as there is a pending claim that the company violated the state's consumer protection law. That could triple the damages, and SCI could also have to pay the couple's legal fees.The civil verdict was made in Suffolk Superior Court on March 4. The jury awarded $75,000 because of emotional distress and $250,000 because they found the funeral home was negligent and intentionally inflicted emotional harm.