SHREVEPORT, La. (Legal Newsline) – The surviving family who sued over the treatment of a father’s corpse is only entitled to an extra $10,000, a Louisiana appeals court recently ruled while rejecting calls that a jury’s verdict was too low.
That amount will be added to a $20,000 verdict for the two women, who argued they deserved more for general damages and the widow’s future medical expenses award. They sued after their desire for an open casket funeral was derailed by the condition of the body of Mitchell Odom, who died in 2015 from a heart attack.
They claimed Rose-Neath Funeral Homes in Shreveport failed to properly embalm Odom. He was even late to his own wake, with the body not showing up until friends and family had been gathered for a half-hour.
“Louisiana in May can be unpleasantly warm,” Judge Jeff Thompson wrote for the Second Circuit Court of Appeal.
The Odoms say it was clear the air conditioning in the building was not working properly and an odor was coming off the corpse during the visitation. Odom’s body was kept by the funeral home overnight in a chapel with no air conditioning, the ruling says.
The body swelled with gases, leaked fluids and emitted a “noxious odor,” the ruling says. Daughter Stacey had to wipe fluids from her dad’s mouth several times before the funeral.
“Some of the funeral attendees had to leave the chapel during the funeral, reportedly due to the heat and smell inside the building,” Thompson wrote.
The Odoms say Rose-Neath never suggested a switch to a closed casket despite the trouble with the embalming and never fixed its air conditioning. They sued the company, presenting a social worker who had treated them after the burial who diagnosed them with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Widow Rita and Stacey each obtained $5,000 in general damages for past and future pain, suffering and mental anguish. They also received $5,000 each for future medical expenses for treatment for their PTSD.
The jury didn’t award anything for past medical expenses for already concluded treatments. The appeals court found this in error and added $10,000 to the verdict.
But the main argument of the Odoms’ appeal – that they were entitled to more in general damages – was rejected by the Second Circuit.
“The facts of this case and the apparent condition of Mr. Odom’s body during his visitation and funeral are disturbing,” Thompson wrote. “These unfortunate conditions clearly exacerbated the grief of plaintiffs in losing a loved one, making a difficult situation even worse.
“The jury found that Rose-Neath’s negligence turned a sad event into a traumatic one for those closest to Mr. Odom. The trial court apparently agreed with the conclusions reached by the jury.
“Based upon this record we cannot say that the jury abused its discretion in awarding general damages of $5,000 to each plaintiff based on the totality of the evidence presented. The discretion vested in the trier of fact is vast and an award of general damages should rarely be disturbed.”