Wally
Wally GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
3/14/09 10:34 a.m.

Maybe not http://wcbstv.com/topstories/graveside.subpoena.harold.2.952746.html

GRAVE ROBBERS: Chrysler Subpoenas Body At Funeral The Family Of Harold St. John Is Outraged After Automobile Company Prevents Burial At Very Last Second Daughter: "Chrysler's Kicking Us When We're Down" Reporting Lou Young CRANBURY, N.J. (CBS) ― Harold St. John was dead a week and in the process of being buried at a New Jersey cemetery when Chrysler subpoenaed his body so that more tests could be done to see how he died. His family is outraged. A graveside subpoena has kept a New Jersey man from his final resting place, and now members of his family are venting their outrage. Diane St. John's husband has been dead since last Saturday, but his grave remains empty. She is livid. "I have to bury my husband again," she told CBS 2 HD in her daughter's Cranbury, N.J. home Friday night. "Wouldn't you be angry if you had to bury a loved one again?" Harold St. John's remains are the object of a tug-of-war in a lawsuit over his fatal asbestos-related illness. The 67-year-old retired airline employee died believing his mesothelioma was caused by the automobile brake linings he installed at his father's auto shop in the late 1950s and early '60s. He sued both Honeywell, and Chrysler and the lawsuit was due to got to trial this coming Monday, March 9. However, his sudden death on Feb. 28 meant a delay in trial, but the family was unprepared for the additional price they'd have to pay. Chrysler went to court demanding access to the body for tissue tests, and managed to get a court order the day of his funeral to prevent his burial. The problem is the court order came down while the funeral was already in progress. The family sat through a service at The Spotswood Reform Church, rode to Holy Cross Cemetery in Jamesburg and prayed graveside expecting that the casket bearing Harold's body would lowered to its final resting place. As it turned out a process server had been sent to observe the funeral and once the mourners left the grave he served the funeral director with papers demanding the body be brought back to his funeral home. The idea of it still outrages surviving son Dennis. "They waited until we left," he choked out between sobs. "I don't get it." Daughter Debbie Eisenbrey called it "cold." "Chrysler's kicking us when we're down," she sobbed. "It's not fair." Mike Palesi, a spokesman for the car company, issued a statement from Detroit: "Chrysler's sympathies are with the St. John family for their loss. Unfortunately, this process is routine in such matters in order to preserve tissue needed to establish the cause of asbestos-related disease. Chrysler acted in a timely fashion, in accordance with directions from the New Jersey Court of Appeals, and in full knowledge of the family's attorneys. Numerous epidemiological studies have, indeed, refuted the link between automotive products and asbestos-related disease." The family, though, said the lawsuit has been in the works for more than a year and that Harold underwent a painful biopsy to provide a tissue sample from the pleural lining of his cancer-ridden lungs while he was still alive. "They have all the evidence they need," Debbie insisted. "It's a stall tactic. They're ruthless." A hearing has been scheduled for Monday in state court in Newark where the family vows to fight the demand for additional tissue samples, they said on principle. Until the issue is resolved Harold St. John's body will remain at the David Demarco Funeral home in Monroe Township.
HappyAndy
HappyAndy Reader
3/14/09 12:55 p.m.

Bob Marley once worked at the Chrysler factory in Newark, DE. I wonder if that is where his cancer came from?

Wally
Wally GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
3/14/09 11:59 p.m.

No, the CIA gave him his "cancer", don't you read the internet.

cwh
cwh Dork
3/15/09 8:40 a.m.

I just wonder what the jury is going to say about this crap when they start to deliberate. Punative damages? Oh yeah.

joey48442
joey48442 SuperDork
3/15/09 9:04 a.m.

He sued, I would think it's fair game for them to want as many samples as possible.

Joey

HiTempguy
HiTempguy Reader
3/15/09 12:49 p.m.

I'm kind of curious why they wanted to bury the body so quickly when something was still before the courts. HMMMMMMMM....

Yea, I don't think Chrysler was doing anything I wouldn't do.

rebelgtp
rebelgtp Dork
3/15/09 1:01 p.m.
HiTempguy wrote: I'm kind of curious why they wanted to bury the body so quickly when something was still before the courts. HMMMMMMMM....

Oh I don't know maybe because that is kind of the normal thing to do when someone you care about dies? Most families won't consider things like an "open court case" as much of a priority when someone has just died.

Also the whole situation was handled very badly by the courts (and Chrysler) by waiting until after the service to serve the papers. People had said their final good byes and said their last respects and were getting ready to bury the guy and then they get told nope haul him back out of that hole. I would be a bit pissed off as well.

Oh and most people are buried within a week of death. A dead human body does not keep that well in most circumstances.

BAMF
BAMF New Reader
3/15/09 9:23 p.m.

Pretty tacky on the part of Chrysler. That's really, really bad PR.

carguy123
carguy123 Dork
3/15/09 10:10 p.m.

I'd say waiting till after the funeral was trying to be sensitive to the family. Would you have rather they stopped the funeral or interrupted it?

P71
P71 GRM+ Memberand Dork
3/15/09 10:28 p.m.

Doesn't anybody think that all of that embalming fluid could have skewed any tissue sample results?

Wally
Wally GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
3/16/09 9:04 a.m.
HiTempguy wrote: I'm kind of curious why they wanted to bury the body so quickly when something was still before the courts. HMMMMMMMM.... Yea, I don't think Chrysler was doing anything I wouldn't do.

It said he was dead a week before the funeral, normally around here you're in the ground in three days, so they had a little more time then usual.

John Brown
John Brown GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
3/16/09 9:47 a.m.

Add that Chrysler is dealing with multiple state jurisdictions, lawyers schedules, time for notice of death from the decedants family to be recieved and, well, a corpse...

I am pretty freaking impressed it only took a week!

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