EXCLUSIVE: Second family sues R.G. Ortiz Funeral Home for $24M over alleged body mix-up
Details of the lawsuit were first provided to News 12 ahead of its expected filing Monday.
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A second family is taking legal action against R.G. Ortiz Funeral Home, alleging their loved one’s body was mistakenly placed in another man’s casket and displayed during another family’s wake.
Details of the lawsuit were first provided to News 12 ahead of its expected filing Monday. According to a press release provided to News 12, the family is seeking more than $24 million in damages from R.G. Ortiz Funeral Home and Michelle Ortiz.
The press release says the complaint identifies Ortiz as a licensed funeral director and the funeral home’s owner, president and CEO.
According to the release, Jose Luis Diaz died on May 17 at 70 years old. His wife and children say they entrusted his body to the funeral home with instructions that he be directly cremated because he did not want a viewing.
Instead, the lawsuit alleges Diaz was dressed in another man’s clothing and placed in an open casket for the wake of 84-year-old Jose Daniel Diaz Felipe.
The release says the complaint alleges Diaz Felipe’s family told the funeral director during the viewing that the man in the casket was not their loved one. The funeral home, however, initially insisted that it was.
The lawsuit later alleges the funeral home acknowledged a mistake involving two men with similar names: “Jose Diaz.”
Diaz Felipe’s family filed a separate lawsuit in August over the alleged mix-up.
“The dead cannot speak for themselves, what they can do is make their final wishes known,” attorney Phil Rizzuto said, calling what happened “a grotesque betrayal of this family’s trust which is irreversible.”
According to the release, the new lawsuit alleges loss of sepulcher, breach of contract, negligence and gross negligence and seeks more than $24 million in damages, including punitive damages.
