What to Know
- A pair of siblings has filed a lawsuit against a Long Island funeral home after it allegedly gave their father’s ashes to another family
- In their joint lawsuit, Susan and Sunil Sharma say they wanted to spread their father's ashes in the Ganges River in India
- The Lake Ronkonkoma Moloney Funeral Home allegedly mixed up the remains of Sarup Sharma with a different man who had the same last name
Two siblings have filed a lawsuit against a Long Island funeral home after it allegedly gave their father’s ashes to another family in a mix-up.
In their joint lawsuit, Susan and Sunil Sharma of Albertson say they wanted to cremate their father’s remains and spread the ashes in the Ganges River in India in a traditional Hindu ceremony, but the Lake Ronkonkoma Moloney Funeral Home allegedly mixed up the remains of Sarup Sharma with a different man who had the same last name.
"They had one job, essentially, to get right," said Oscar Michelen, attorney for the siblings who are suing the funeral home.
The lawsuit says the siblings planned to scatter their father’s ashes along with their mother’s — who passed away in September 2017, seven months after their father — in the traditional Hindu ceremony.
The siblings and their family, thinking they were in possession of Sarup’s remains traveled to India and scattered the ashes, according to the lawsuit filed in Nassau County on Aug. 13.
"What they hoped is to make the trip to India with both of their parents to honor their memory and to complete this very important ritual in their religion, which is to spread the ashes in a very special part of the Ganges," said Michelen.
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The court document describes the “custom of spreading the deceased’s remains in the Ganges” as a “sacred, important, and central rite in Hindu life.”
The lawsuit states that it wasn’t until November that the funeral home allegedly informed the siblings that they accidently sent their father’s remains to the family of Shashi Sharma, who shares the same last name but is not related, and that they hadn’t received their father’s ashes.
Through their lawsuit, the siblings contend that the funeral home “was negligent, reckless and otherwise carless in its care and custody of Sarup Sharma’s remains.”
Additionally, the lawsuit says the siblings “suffered mental anguish.”
The Sharma siblings are seeking a monetary sum, interest, costs and disbursements as well as any additional monies and relief the court deems “just and proper.”
According to the funeral home’s spokesperson, Katherine Heaviside, the funeral home is reviewing its procedures to prevent another similar incident from occurring.
"Once we learned of the situation we immediately reached out to both families to express our remorse and assure them of our full cooperation during this difficult time,” Heaviside said, adding, “we have reviewed all of our procedures and have taken steps to strengthen our protocols further to ensure that we maintain the full trust and confidence of the families we serve, as we have for the last 85 years."
But Michelen said the family doesn't accept the funeral home's mistake.
"If you will deal with a group that is an ethnic community, you will have a lot of similar names," he said.
"When a person goes to pick up their loved ones' remains, you're supposed to check the box against the contract numbers. There's a lot of things that could be in place to make sure you don't make this mistake, because there's no coming back from it," he said.
